Richard Kimball

  General Notes:

~ The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, p. 157, Richard Kimball was aged 39 on 39 Apr 1634. ⁴⁶⁶

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁵⁴²
Richard Kimball was from Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. He married Ursula Scott, the daughter of Henry Scott of Rattlesden & sister of fellow immagrant, Thomas Scott. Richard Kimball married a second time, 23 Oct 1661, to Margaret Dow, widow of Henry Dow of Hampton, New Hampshire.

Richard Kimball came to the Americas aboard the Elizabeth in 1634. He first lived in Watertown, Massachusetts. His home lot of six acres is on land which later became part of Cambridge. He was proclaimed freeman, 6 May 1635 & was a proprietor in 1636/7. Soon after that, he was asked to relocate to Ipswich, where they were in need of a competent man to act aswheelwright to their new settlement. He spend the remainder of his years in Ipswich, where he was granted a house lot, 23 Feb 1636 and 40 more acres.

"The last will and Testament of Richard Kimball senior of Ipswich in Essex in new England who although weake in body yet of prfect memory doe dispose of my lands & estate in maner & form as followeth.

"To my Loveinge wife my will is that she dwell in my house and have Improvement of my ground and meadow belonging thereto with the use and increase of my whole stock of cattle, one whole yeare after my decease, and then at the years end, the forty pound due her acording to contract at marriage to be payd her and that hous hold stuff she brought with her. And to have liberty to live in the parlor end of the house, the roome we now lodge in: and liberty for her nesessary use of some part of seller: also the liberty of one cow in pasture, the executors to provide winter meate for the same, and to have one quarter part of the fruit of the orchard, and firewood as long as she lives ther., And if she desire to remove to her owne house, then to be sett in it with what she have by my executors and to be alowed forty shillings yearly as long as shee lives.

"And to my Eldest son Henry, my will is to give him three score and ten pounds to be payd Twenty pounds, a year & half after my decease, & the remaining part in the two years following after that.
"To my son Richard I give forty pounds.
"To my son John I give twenty pounds.
"To my son Thomas I give Twenty five pounds to bee payd two years and a halfe after my decease, and to his children I give seaven pounds to be devided equally among them and paid as they come of age or at day of marriage, providing if any dye before then their share to be distributed equally amongst the rest.
"And to my son Benjamin, besides the two oxen, allready received I give the sum of twenty five pounds, ten pound to be payd a yeare and halfe after my decease. The rest two years ffollowing, also to his children I give five pounds, equally to be devyded, and payd, as they come of age, or at day of marriage, in case any dye before, that part to be equally divided to the rest.
"And to my son Caleb I give that peace of land knowne by the name of Tings lott, and all my land att Wattels neck with my marsh at the hundreds knowne by the name of Wiatts marsh, and all my working tools exsept two axes, all to be delivered present after my discease also I give fourteene pounds to his seaven children equally to be devided, to be payd as they come of age or Day of mariage, and if any dye before, that part to be equally devided amongst the rest.
"To my son-in-law John Severans, I give ten pounds to be pay'd two yeares & a halfe after my decease.
"And to my Daughter Elizabeth I give thirty pounds, ten pound to be payd, a year & halfe after my decease, and the other two parts, the following two years after that.
"To my Daughter Mary I give ten pounds, five pound to be payd a year & halfe after my decease, the other five pound the year after that.
"To my daughter Sarah I give forty pound, five pound to be payd the yeare & halfe after my decease and the rest five pound a yeare till it be all payd, also to her children I give seaven pounds ten shillings to be payed to them as they come of age or at day of marriage, if any dye before, that part to be equally devyded to the rest.
"And to my daughter Sarah above sd: I also give the bed I lye on with the furniture after one years use of it by my wife.
"To Thomas and Mary I give forty shillings apeece to be payd a yeare & halfe after my decease, and to Jeremiah I give fifteene pounds to be payd at the age of one & twenty. I give also eight pounds to the two Eldest daughters of Gyes Cowes (that he had by his first wife) to be payd and equally devided to them at the age of sixteene, if either of them dye before then the whole to be given to the one that remaines.
"I also give four pounds to my Couzen Haniell Bossworth, And doe ordaine & apoynt my two sons above sd. Richard and john Kimball to be my lawfull and sole executors.
"And my Couzen Haniell Bosworth above sayd to be my overseer that this my last will and Testament be duely and truly performed And thus I conclude with setting too my hand and seale the fifth of march 1674-5.

"Richard Kemball & a mark and a seale.

"Signed & sealed after the enterlining (and firewood) in the seventh line in the originall yn the presence of
Moses Pengry Senr.
Aron Pengry Sr.

"This will is proved in court held at Ypswich the 28th of Sept: 1675. by the oaths of Decon Pengry And Aron Pengry to be the last will of Richard Kimball to the best of yr knowledge and that they know of noe other. Attest Robert Lord cler."

Richard Kimball died 22 Jun 1675. His wife did not long survive him, but died the succeeding spring, 1 Mar 1676. Richard Kimball was well to do for those early days. The inventory of his estate, which was taken 12 Jul 1675, and returned to court 28 Sep 1675, amounted to £737 3s 6d. He had already given to his children at their marriages.


• Abigail Kimball, listed first in her grandfather's will, died June 17, 1658; married John Severans; she died in Salisbury, Massachusetts, mother of twelve children. Not on the "Elizabeth" passenger list; may have been married by that time.
• Henry Kimball, married, about 1640, Mary, daughter of John and Mary Wyatt, a passenger on the "Elizabeth" with him in 1634; married as his second wife Elizabeth (Gilbert) Rayner, a widow; Henry was a resident of Watertown, Ipswich, and Wenham, Massachusetts; thirteen children.
• Elizabeth Kimball, born in Rattlesden 1621; living in 1675.
• Richard Kimball, b. Rattlesden, England, 1623; d. 26 May 1676 in Wenham, Massachusetts
• Mary Kimball, born 1625; married Robert Dutch, of Gloucester and Ipswich, Massachusetts; six children.
• Martha Kimball, b. 1629 in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England; married Joseph Fowler, born in England, 1642; killed by the Indians, 19 May 1676, near Deerfield, Massachusetts. Joseph Fowler came to New England in the ship Mary, with his father in 1634.
• John Kimball, born in Rattlesden 1631, died 6 May 1698; was a wheelwright and an extensive farmer, about 1655 married Mary Bradstreet, born in England, 1633; they came to America on the same ship in 1634; thirteen children.
• Thomas Kimball, born 1633, died 2 May 1676; was a mechanic and thrifty farmer, owning over four hundred acres of land and a large amount of personal property; on the night of 2 May 1676, at his home in Rowley, on the Boxford road, he was killed by three Indians, his wife and five children taken captive and carried forty miles into the wilderness where they were kept forty-one days when they were freed; married Mary, daughter of Thomas and Joanna Smith; nine children.
• Sarah Kimball, born 1635, died 12 June 1690; married, 24 November 1658, Edward Allen, of Ipswich, Massachusetts

History of the Kimball Family in America, p 27-34

Richard married Ursula Scott, daughter of Henry Scott and Martha Whatlock ¹⁵⁴².^,1544 (Ursula Scott was born on 15 Feb 1598.)