Re: DOROTHY (WHIPPLE) PACKARD

Dorothy (Whipple) Packard

Mitchell, Ref. 1, p. 268:
“PERKINS.—25. Mark Perkins came from Ipswich 1741, and settled in N. B. [North Bridgewater]: his wife was a Whipple (probably Dorothy): he had Josiah, Jonathan, Isaac, Jesse, Dorothy, Sarah, Jemima, Martha, Mary: he d. 1756, ae. 58. Dorothy m. Jacob Packard 1742. —Sarah m. Ebenezer Packard 1746. —Jemima m. Levi Keith 1759. —Martha m. Nathan Packard. —Mary m. Simeon Packard 1761. —Dorothly Perkins, the wid. Perhaps, m. Solomon Packard 1760.”

Mitchell continues with paragraphs for each of Mark’s and Dorothy’s sons and names their wives and children. The Packard sons-in-law and their families are given in Mitchell’s section on PACKARD.

Mitchell, Ref. 1, p. 254:
“PACKARD.—12. Solomon (s. of Zacheus 3.) m. Sarah D. of Samuel Lathrop 1715, who d. and he then m. Susanna D. of Samuel Kingman, and had Sarah 1719, Jacob 1720, Nathan 1722*, Susanna 1724, Joanna 1725, Martha 1727, Solomon 1729, Nathan 1733, Benjamin 1734, Zebulun 1736, Micah 1738; he m. Dorothy wid. of Mark Perkins perhaps 1760. —Sarah m. Isaac Fuller 1737. —Susanna m. Joseph Alden 742. —Joanna m. Isaac Allen 1745. —Martha m. Isaac Alden Jr. 1755, and Israel Bailey 1760. —Benjamin m. Ruth D. of Nehemiah Leach 1762, and he and Micah went to Me.”

Mitchell continues on p. 257 with paragraphs for the other sons of Solomon’s and Sarah’s and names their wives and children.

Kingman, Ref. 2, p. 619:
“THE PERKINS FAMILY.
1 MARK PERKINS was son of Luke; came from Ipswich, Mass., to North Bridgewater in 1741; married Dorothy Whipple. Children: —
2 Dorothy, b. Feb. 4, 1721; married Jacob Packard. [Feb. 25, 1742]
3 Matthew, b. June 25 1723; died June 25, 1724.
4 Sarah, b. March 27, 1725; married Ebenezer Packard. [Nov. 24, 1746]
5 Josiah, b. Jan. 4,1727 [13]; married Abigail Edson, Aug. 17, 1755.
6 Jonathan, b. Jan. 5 1729 [23]; married Abigail Packard, 1752.
7 Isaac, b. April 27, 1731 [36]; married Joanna Edson, May 2, 1754.
8 Martha, b. Dec. 30, 1733; married Nathan Packard, 1763.
9 Ebenezer, b. May 7, 1736; died Nov. 9, 1736.
10 Jemima, b. Feb. 17 1738; married Levi Keith, Nov. 8, 1759.
11. Mary, b. Feb. 16, 1739; married Simeon Packard, July 6, 1761.
12 Jesse, b. Dec. 6 1742 [41]; married Susanna Field, June 5, 1769.
The father died Dec. 20, 1756, aged 58. The widow married Solomon Packard, May 1, 1782.”

This indicates that Mark, the father, was born in 1698.

The last sentence of the above quotation is in error. It should read: “The widow married Solomon Packard Oct. 5, 1760 and she died May 1, 1782.” These facts are stated correctly by Kingman on p.587 in his listing for Solomon Packard and family.

Kingman continues with his listing of the Perkins Family. The numbers in brackets in the above quotation of Kingman’s are numbers he assigned to male Perkins descendants for whom he had additional information.

I have added in brackets to the above quote from Kingman, p. 619, the marriage dates of Mark’s and Dorothy’s daughters Dorothy and Sarah as given by Kingman in his listings for the next generation.

The Packard spouses of Mark’s and Dorothys children were cousins of each other, except for Jacob and Nathan Packard who were brothers as well as cousins to the others.

Kingman, Ref. 2, p. 586,7:
“THE PACKARD FAMILY.
“19 Solomon, b. March 20, 1689 [43]; m. Sarah Lathrop, Nov. 16, 1715.
“43 Solomon (son of Zaccheus 14) lived on the place afterward owned by the late Waldo Hayward, and now occupied by Zina Hayward; married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, Nov. 16, 1715. The wife died ——. He then married Susanna, daughter of Samuel Kingman. Children: —
44 Sarah, b. May 23, 1719; married Isaac Fuller, Nov. 8, 1737.
45 Jacob, b. Sept. 2, 1720 [140]; m. Dorothy Perkins, Nov. 24, 1742.
46 Nathan, b. March 1722; died ——.
47 Susanna, b. March 11, 1724; married Joseph Alden, Dec. 16, 1742.
48 Joanna, b. Nov. 24, 1725; married Isaac Allen, Feb. 20, 1745.
49 Martha, b. Nov. 27, 1727; married, 1st, Isaac Alden, Jr., Nov. 6, 1755; 2d, Israel Bailey,1760.
50 Solomon, b. Oct. 17, 1729 [149]; m. Hannah Bailey, Nov. 20, 1760.
51 Nathan, b. Feb.19, 1733 [158]; married Martha Perkins.
52 Benjamin, b. Oct. 20, 1734 [165]; married Ruth Leach, Feb. 13, 1763; removed to Maine.
53 Zebulon, b. Aug. 5, 1736; married Rebecca Richardson, 1764.
54 Micah, b. Aug. 13, 1738; removed to Maine.
The wife died ——. He then married Dorothy, widow of Mark Perkins, Oct. 5, 1760. The wife died May 1, 1782.”

Kingman continues with his listing of the Packard Family. The numbers in brackets in the above quotation of Kingman’s are numbers he assigned to male Packard descendants for whom he had additional information.

Packard, Ref. 3, p. 9:
“26. SOLOMON born in Bridgewater, March 20, 1689, removed to North Bridgewater subsequent to 1700, and married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, of West Bridgewater, Nov. 16, 1715. She was born in 1693, and died while young. He then married Susanna, daughter of Samuel Kingman, of Bridgewater who was born in 1693 [apparent error, 1697, Ref. 2]. They had seven sons and four daughters, viz.: Sarah, Jacob, Nathan 1st, Susanna, Joanna, Martha, Solomon Jr., Nathan 2d, Benjamin, Zebulon, and Micah, all of whom had families, except Nathan 1st, who died while young. After the death of his second wife, he married Dorothy, widow of Mark Perkins, of North Bridgewater, Oct. 5, 1760, who died May 1, 1782.”

We see from Kingman, Ref. 2, p. 619, that the oldest child of Mark Perkins and Dorothy Whipple was Dorothy Perkins who was born Feb. 4, 1721. Assuming Dorothy Whipple was 18 years old when she married Mark Perkins, she would have been born about 1702 and therefore about 58 years old when she married Solomon Packard as his third wife. She would have been about 80 years old when she died in 1782.

These data indicate, if they are correct, that Mark Perkins and Dorotlhy Whipple were married and had all but the last of their children before moving to North Bridgewater. The implication is that they moved from Ipswich in 1741. I have wondered what motivated them at that stage in their lives to move from Ipswich in Essex Co. on the north shore above Boston to Bridgewater south of Boston and inland. Were they influenced by any of the other Perkins families who already lived in Bridgewater or vicinity?

Mitchell lists in Ref. 1 several Perkins familes in Bridgewater before 1741, but does not identify any of them as related to Mark Perkins. The earliest Perkins resident in Bridgewater listed by Mitchell is David Perkins who came before 1688 from Beverly, a few miles south of Ipswich, and settled in what became the south parish of Bridgewater.

No author, J. H. Beers & Co., Ref. 4, pp. 1485, 1486:
“PERKINS. (I) Abraham Perkins appears in 1638 as one of the first settlers of Hampton, then in Massachusetts, now in New Hampshire, in which town he was made a freeman May 13, 1640. Mr. Perkins was a man of good education, an excellent penman, and was much employed in town business. An old family Bible still preserved among his descendants gives the births of eleven of his thirteen children. He died Aug. 31, 1683, aged about seventy-two. His widow Mary died May 29, 1706, aged eighty-eight. Their children were: Mary, born Sept. 2, 1639; Abraham, born Sept. 2, 1639; Luke, born in 1640-41; …
“ (II) Luke Perkins, born in 1640-41, married March 9, 1663, Hannah, widow of Henry Cookery, and daughter of Robert Long, Sr. … Luke Perkins died March 20, 1709-10, and his wife died Nov. 16, 1715. Their children were: Henry; John, born May 10 1664; Luke, born March 14, 1665, who died young; Luke (2), born March 18, 1667; …
“(III) Luke Perkins (2) born March 18, 1667, married May 31, 1688, Martha, daughter of Lot and Elizabeth (Walton) Conant. He was a blacksmith, and resided in the towns of Marblehead, Beverly, Wenham, Ipswich and Plympton. … He went to Plympton about 1714, and died there Dec. 27, 1748; his widow died Jan. 2, 1754, in her ninetieth year. Their children were: John, born April 5, 1689, in Marblehead; Martha, born Sept. 19, 1691; Hannah, born March 12, 1693; Luke, born Sept. 17, 1695; Mark, baptized in Beverly, April 30, 1699, and, according to Davis in his ‘Landmarks of Plympton,’ Josiah, born in 1700.

Mark Perkins, son of Luke Perkins (2) and baptized in Beverly, April 30, 1699, could very well be the Mark Perkins, son of Luke, from Ipswich who came to Bridgewater in 1741 with his wife and family and who died Dec. 20, 1756 at age 58. Beverly is about 8 miles south of Ipswich.

Luke Perkins (2) is reported in Ref. 4 to have resided in Marblehead, Beverly, Wenham, Ipswich which are all in Essex Co. and to have gone about 1714 to Plympton in Plymouth Co. His son Mark would have been 16 years old at the time. If he didn’t go with his parents then, he would have had that connection with Plympton as a young man. Bridgewater is less than 10 miles west of Plympton.

I have been unable to find anythng else about Dorothy Whipple, Matthew Whipple, or Dorcas Paine under their surnames in Refs. 1 to 4 although there are some other Paines and Whipples therein. Ref. 4, p. 904, has a Dorcas Paine born in 1669 to Thomas Paine and Mary Snow in Eastham, Barnstable Co., Mass., but has no further information on Dorcas. Could this be Dorothy Whipple’s mother? A little more is available on this Dorcas’ ancestry.

Sources:

1. Mitchell, Nahum; "History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater," 1840; [Facsimile reprint with new name index; 456 pp.; Heritage Books; Bowie, Maryland: 1983, 1997.]

2. Kingman, Bradford; "History of North Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, From Its First Settlement to the Present Time, with Family Registers;" 696 pp.; Boston: 1866. [Reprint by Higginson Book Co., Salem, Mass.: 1987.]

3. Packard, Theophilus, Rev.; "The Genealogies of Samuel Packard, of Bridgewater, Mass., and of Abel Packard, of Cummington, Mass.:" 85 pp.; 1871; [Reprint by the Old Bridgewater Historical Society, West Bridgewater, Mass.: 1986.]

4. Author not given; “Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts;” Vols. I, II, III; 1792 pp.; Indexed; J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago: 1912.