Abigail (Kingsland) Elderkin (abt. 1616 - 1656)

It is said on Wikitree and elsewhere that Paltiah/Paltiel, wife of Daniel2 Comstock, was the daughter of John and Abigail (Kingsland) Elderkin. The mother’s maiden name has never been confirmed but is inferred from the forename of Daniel and Paltiah’s tenth child, which is almost always listed by secondary sources as Kingsland; Torrey has the surname of John Elderkin's first wife as [Kingslane?]. This despite the fact that the record of this Comstock child’s baptism, at New London 2 November 1673, has his forename as Kensley, and that his namesake son’s (adult) baptism and marriage records have the latter's forename as Kinsley (New London Church Records, 1670–1888, 1:86, 135, 164).

The record of Daniel Comstock’s estate inventory, taken 13 November 1683, includes the statement that administration of his estate was granted to his widow, “Paltiell” (New London District Probate, file 1392 [original], A:56 [clerk’s copy]). (Paltiel, meaning “deliverance of God,” is equivalent to Paltiah, “Deliverance of Jehovah.”) Parish records of Boston, Lincolnshire, England, contain the baptism, 16 May 1633, of “Phaltiell” Kinsley, daughter of John Kinsley (FindMyPast.com). Boston is about nine miles southwest of Wrangle, the parish in which John “Ellderkyn" was baptized 24 July 1614, son of Henry Ellderkyn (ibid.). The proximity of these two parishes tends to confirm that this baptismal record belongs to the immigrant John Elderkin.

Given the rarity of the name Paltiah/Paltiel (especially for a female) and the New London church records listing the Comstocks’ tenth child’s forename as Kensley and that of his namesake son (twice) as Kinsley, the only reasonable conclusion is that Paltiah/Paltiel was the daughter of John Kinsley and stepdaughter of John Elderkin. Her mother, Abigail, was therefore not a Kinsley (let alone Kingsland) by birth but by her marriage to John Kinsley; Elderkin was her second husband. It is now uncertain whether Elderkin’s so-called daughter Hannah—whose Wikitree birth data (Dedham, 13 May 1634) is baseless—was an Elderkin or a Kinsley by birth.

My having been unable to find additional records for John Kinsley, the first wife of John Elderkin was Abigail (_____) Kinsley; her maiden name is unknown. Kinsley died presumably between 1633 (Paltiel’s baptism) and 1638 (Elderkins’ immigration), the same date range that applies to Abigail’s marriage to John Elderkin, which, as with her first marriage, occurred in Lincolnshire.

Kingsland-39 and Kingsland-5 appear to represent the same person because: Same person, same husband