Person:Hannah Palmer (9)

HISTORY OF STONINGTON CT, by Wheeler, page 418 & 419.Pending the session of the General Court of Connecticut in 1670, a hearing was had for the consideration of a petition of Mrs Hannah Hewitt, the widow of Thomas Hewitt, for liberty to marry again, setting forth that she had not heard from her late husband for the space of eight years, and better, and her neighbors also testifying that the said Hewitt had so long been absent and that they had not heard of him, or the vessel or company he went with since their departure. "The court having considered the premises, declare that the said Hannah Hewitt is at liberty to marry again if she see cause. "So on the 27th day of December 1671, she was united in marriage with Roger Sterry. He d. before 1680; she m. 3d. John Fish Aug. 25, 1681, she being his 3d wife.

WALTER PALMER OF CHARLESTOWN & REHOBOTH, MASS. & STONINGTON, CONN., Compiled, Edited, Typed and Partly researched by Doris Palmer Buys, page 77. Hannah removed with her parents to Rehoboth, MA in 1643 and thereafter to Stonington CT, in 1653. She married (1st) Thomas Hewitt on 26 Apr 1659 in Stonington; he was lost at sea and on 27 Dec 1671 Hannah married Roger Sterry who died before 1680; she married 3rd John Fish on 25 Aug 1681 as his 3rd wife.

REFERENCES: Genealogy: PG/p.25---Dr. BSP/p. 7-PF/p.16---STER./pp. 4,5 HIST. STON. pp.418, 419.Hannah was evidently born early in May or in early June of 1634, based on the fact that she was baptised in the First Church of Charlestown on 4th month 15th day 1634 which according to the time meant 15 Jun 1634. Whe went with her parents to "Antient" Rehoboth and Stonington, where she married her first husband Thomas Hewitt. He established a West India Trade and in the year 1662 started out on a voyage and was never heard from again. His widow, Hannah, petitioned the General Court of Connecticut for liberty to re-marry, and this was granted on 27 Dec 1671, and she married her second husband Roger Sterry. There is no record of his death other than that he died previous to 1680, and that she then married for her third husband John Fish on 25 Aug 1681 and in turn was his third wife. There is an interesting ante-nuptial contract among the Stonington records, made at the time of his final marriage to Hannah Palmer. He was at the time the schoolmaster at Stonington and acted temporarily as town clerk. He was a land surveyor, and himself owned considerable grants of land. Both John Fish and his son Samuel, were among the volunteers who joined the esxpedition against King Philip in 1675, and were present at the Great Swamp fight. At his death his son Samuel was his principal heir. Hannah probably resided her entire life in Stonington.
DESCENDANTS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS HEWITT OF STONINGTON, CONN.. Compiled by Virginia Hewitt Watterson, 1996. Found in the Joseph Smith Library, Salt Lake City, Ut. Page 1.

1. ↑ "Walter Palmer", in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   III:1382.

   PALMER, HANNAH; … m. (1) 26 April 1659 Thomas Hewitt [Minor Diary 34]; m. (2) Stonington 27 December 1671 Roger Sterry; m. (3) Stonington 25 August 1681 John Fish. (The precise dates for the second and third marriages of Hannah are given in many secondary sources [e.g., Stonington Hist. 418-19, 508], but doe not appear in the Stonington vital records. Wheeler does provide clues pointing to the location of the evidence for these marriages [e.g., "An interesting jointure between them is preserved in our old Stonington records," Stonington Hist 508].)

2. ↑ First Church (Charlestown, Massachusetts), and James Frothingham, ed. Hunnewell. Records of the First Church in Charlestown, 1632-1789. (Boston, Mass, 1880)
   45.

   1634 4 : mo : day 15 Hanna Palmer the daughter of Gualter Palmer and of Rebeckah his wife: was Babtised.

3.   Palmer, Elmer Hall. Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Walter Palmer of Charlestown, Seacuncke, Stonington. (The Walter Palmer Society, 2002).