Thomas Kimball I (1633 - 1676)

Born 1633 in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Smith) Knowlton — married before Dec 1658 in Ipswich, Massachusetts [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 3 May 1676 at about age 43 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Richard Draper [send private message], Paula Jacunski [send private message], and Linda Franks [send private message]

Biography

Thomas Kimball I immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Thomas Kimball I was KIA during King Philip's War.

Thomas Kimball, born in Rattlesden, Co. Suffolk, Eng., in 1633, came in 1634, with his father, and lived in Ipswich; a mechanic; he owned a mill at Hampton, N. H., in 1653. He followed the trade of his father, a wheelwright.

In 1649 (7th mo.) in Essex Court records is the following:

"We present Joesph Fowler, Thomas Cooke, Thomas Scott, and two of ye sons of Richard Kimball, for goeing into ye woods, shouting and singing, taking fire and liquors with them, all being at unseasonable time in ye night, ocasioning yr. wives and some others to go out to them."

" Joesph Fowler, Thomas Scott, John Kemball and Thomas Kemball for their presentment, had a legal admonition."^[1]

He married Mary Smith, daughter of Thomas and Joanna Smith. In 1660, he removed to Rowley, where he was constable in 1668. Until his death, he always held some town office, being a selectman. He was killed by Indians, May 3, 1676, at Bradford, and his wife and five children were carried forty miles into the wilderness and were held there until June 13th, when they were returned.

In Nov. 1680 (or 1686), Thomas Smith of Ipswich and his wife Joanna, came to Bradford to live with their widowed daughter, Mary Kimball; as mention is made of Thomas alone the following year, Joanna had probably died.^[2]

He died 03 MAY 1676 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts. Genealogical Dictionary states:

"Kimball, Thomas, Ipswich, s. of Richard, an early sett. of that pt. of Rowley, that aft. was call. Bradford, k. by the Ind. 3 May 1676, when his w. and five ch. Joanna, Thomas, Joseph, Priscilla, and John, were tak. prison. carr. a. forty miles into the wilderness, and allow. to come home 13 June foll."^[3]

The Bradford records state that Thomas was “shot by an Indian, and his wife and 5 children, viz. Joannah, Thomas, Joseph, Priscilla & John, were carried captive, they returned home ye 13th of June, 1676”. Mary petitioned the Governor and Council that she might be protected from Symon who had threatened to kill her and her children if they returned to their home. The three Indians were captured, however, they escaped and continued their attacks on the English settlements.

Administration of his estate was granted to Mary on 27 June 1676 and the inventory of his estate was taken 18 May 1676:

Wearing apparill, all ye Indians left....................2-10-0
Tabel lining, 1 sheete, 3 pillowberes..................1-15-0
Vallence and Curtaine and 4 Cushins................0-10-0
2 Rugs, 2 blankets, and a parcill of old beading.3-5-0
Peautar....................................................................3-3-0
1 Iron pot, 1 warming pan, 2 tubs, 2 barills......1-10-0
Saddle and pillion and a parcill of sheeps wool.1-5-0
Tools for his traid and utensils for husbandry...5-0-0
Six oxen, five Cowes, two heifers of 3 yere old, 3
steres of 2 yere old, 2 yerlings, 5 Calves............66-15
A horse and a mare and a Coult...........................6-0-0
12 swine...................................................................7-0-0
7 shepe....................................................................2-0-0
Housing and about 422 acres land and medow.450-0-0
Glass.......................................................................1-10-0
Corne and provisions.............................................3-0-0
5 yards of Cloath.....................................................1-0-0
..............................................................................556-3-0
Wearing cloaths of Goody kimbals....................3-16-0
Cloaths of Joanna Kimball...................................2-10-0

Debts due to the estate
Gilbert Wilfords estate...........................................1-0-0
Daniell Boreman.....................................................1-0-0
John Wicom.............................................................1-0-0
Joseph Bond............................................................1-2-0
Ensigne Chandler.................................................1-10-0
By John Kimbal......................................................12-0-0
Total.....................................................................17-12-0

Debts due from the estate Mr. Wainwright.....................................................9-18-6
Capt. Gerish..........................................................9-19-1
Sergent Wait.........................................................6-18-0
John Pickard.........................................................1-10-0
Stephen Webster.................................................1-10-0
Will Barker............................................................2-16-0
Decon Jewit...........................................................0-18-0
David Haseltine......................................................1-1-0
Hunt of Ipswich......................................................1-2-0
Decon Goodhue.....................................................1-0-0
Mr. Cobbit.............................................................0-10-0
Shu. Walker...........................................................0-12-0
Joseph Hardy........................................................1-10-0
Nath Gage.............................................................0-15-0
Samull Haseltine....................................................2-2-0
Francis Jordon........................................................0-2-6
Josiah Gage...........................................................0-18-0
John Stickne............................................................3-0-0
Mr. Buship at present not known
Anthony Somersby................................................1-5-0
Phillip Fouler...........................................................0-6-0
Total.......................................................................50-8-1

On 26 Sept. 1676 the estate was divided as follows: to Richard the eldest son £80, to the rest of the children £40 each and the remainder of the estate to the widow with the land to stand bound for the payment of the children’s portions. ^[4]

On 18 Nov. 1686 “Richard and Benjamin Kimball of Bradford did covenant to and with the Selectmen of Ipswich that they would take Thomas Smith and his wife to Bradford to the house of Mary Kimball the widow of Thomas Kimball and provide their Meate, drink, washing, lodgeing, clothes and attendance with all things necessary for persons in such a condition for the space of one year beginning at the date hereof, the price for a year to be £25”. ^[5]

“Dec. 8, 1681 Agreed with Richard Kimball of Bradford to allow unto him further keeping and providing for his grandfather Thomas Smith for the year ensuing £13”. ^[5]

Children

1. Elizabeth Kimball
2. Joanna Kimball
3. Richard Kimball
4. Hannah Kimball
5. Joseph Kimball. No WikiTree profile yet; no evidence yet found that he married or had children.
6. Mary Kimball
7. Thomas Kimball
8. Ebenezer Kimball
9. Priscilla Kimball
10. John Kimball

Research Notes

Identity of Son Joseph

The identity of his son Joseph is disputed and controversial. Some believe him to be the Joseph Kimball of Surry, Virginia, claiming that the Massachusetts man became a sailor and then "jumped ship" at Virginia en route to or from Barbados.^[6] But there is no evidence that Joseph, son of Thomas and Mary, ever left Massachusetts.^[7] What we do know about him: "Joseph Kimball of Bradford, bound himself with consent of his mother Mary Kimball for three years to Zacheus Curtis of Boxford, carpenters, December 20, 1687. He was 17 years old when he went and his brother Richard, aged 32 and Thomas 27, testified March 29, 1692 that he was not 21 years and above five months old. He was pressed into His Majesties Service when in Boxford, May 24, 1690, and was not released till November 17th, and the year before he was pressed a fortnight." (Judicial Records, 52, 68).^[8].

The claim that a Joseph from Massachusetts went to Barbados and thence to Virginia appears to be an error based on a partial excerpt of a paper written by M.J. Chandler in "The Journal of Barbados Museum and Historical Society" that was posted from the book by Jim White.^[9] Reading the full paper, one finds it refers to a passenger list of indentured servants bound from London, probably thru Barbados, bound for Virginia. That occurrence was ca. 1682-84, so it could not have been Joseph, son of Thomas who was only about 12 - 13 yo at the time and still in New England. (M&S' stated birth date for Thomas' son is probably in error and in direct conflict with two other references they make for him in his profile. Calculating from the other facts, he was probably born ca. 1670 - 71 rather than 1662.)

There is no written evidence that any of these Josephs was the one with the meager probate in Virginia in 1713 (Joseph-241), and the purported progenitor of the Southern Kimballs. There are multiple possibilities for the origin of Joseph-241, none of them proven (yet). Also, while there appears to be family lore about Joseph-241 possibly having an Indian wife, there is no known document confirming this either.

Text from Bradford, Massachusetts Vital Records: "Bradford Deaths: Thomas, "shot by an Indian, and his wife and 5 children viz. Joannah, Thomas, Joseph, Priscilla & John, were carried captive, they returned home ye 13th of June, 1676," May 3, 1673."

Name

Thomas /Kimball/^[10]

Birth

12 AUG 1615

Rattlesden, Suffolk, , England^[11]

Death

03 MAY 1676

Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts, United States^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Essex County Court Records, volume? Page #? link?
2. ↑ Bassett-Preston ancestors : a history of the ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston; page 168
3. ↑ Walter Goodwin Davis, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A reprinting in alphabetical order by surname of the sixteen multi-ancestor compedia, Introduction by Gary Boyd Roberts (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1996), Volume 2, Page 393
4. ↑ Essex Quarterly Courts- Vol. 25, fol. 124; Vol. 5, fol. 94, 284
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} "History of the Kimball family in America, from 1634 to 1897 : and of its ancestors the Kemballs or Kemboldes of England; with an account of the Kembles of Boston, Massachusetts" pg 34, pg 41-43, 57-9
6. ↑ Joseph Kimball, Carpenter and Sailor (Blog)
7. ↑ Hoyt, David Webster. The old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts ; with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton. Providence, R.I. : Snow & Farnham, printers, 1897. pg. 226. link
8. ↑ Morrison, Leonard Allison. History of the Kimball family in America from 1634 to 1897 and of its ancestors the Kemballs or Kemboldes of England..., Boston : Damrell & Upham, 1897, pg. 43.
9. ↑ M.J Chandler,"Emigrants from Britain to the Colonies of America and the West Indies", Journal of Barbados Museum and Historical Society, vol 36.1 (1979), pp. 28-43.
10. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Richard Kimball
11. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Richard Kimball
12. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Richard Kimball

See also:

• James Savage, Geneaological Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, (Originally published Boston 1860-62, reprinted April 1873 and 1884. Reproduced by Genealogical Publishing Company, Balitmore 1981.

• WikiTree FreeSpace: Deceit of Captain Waldron — Thomas Kimball is mentioned, and the names of his killers.
• Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA. Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records.

• WikiTree profile Kimball-1051 created through the import of Brooks_ME_NH_England_2013-01-16.ged on Jan 16, 2013 by Paula Jacunski.