We begin our story with Samuel Palmer, patriarch of the Methuen Palmer family. Samuel was born April 27, 1713¹, the third son and fifth child of Richard Palmer and Martha Downer in the Town of Newbury, Essex County, and Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was baptized on May 9, 1713² in Bradford, Essex County, and Province of Massachusetts Bay. Samuel grew up in Bradford among many siblings and cousins, all descendants of Joseph Palmer and Sarah Jackman who were among the original founders of Bradford, which was originally "set off" and established from the Town of Rowley.

Samuel apparently didn’t take to farming. By age twenty-one he had apparently left home and found gainful employment as a Cordwainer in Rowley, Massachusetts. He met a woman named Anne Evans in Rowley and married her there in 1738. Samuel and Anne remained in Rowley for a few more years and had two children there.

Samuel soon got connected with other men of Andover, Bradford, Haverhill, Rowley, Newbury and other nearby places in 1740 and 1741 who were solicited to settle land in what was then and remains to this day the western part of Methuen. He may have obtained about one hundred acres, more or less, in this western area of Methuen near a sizable pond then called South Pond. Later it was called Harris’s Pond. Today this pond is called Forest Lake. It is at this time that Samuel may have tried farming as an occupation but apparently it didn’t last long and he went back to the occupation of shoemaking. Samuel appears on the Tax List of the Town of Methuen in 1742 along with all the other new settlers in Methuen. Samuel and Anne also appear in the Vital Records of Methuen having registered the birth of a son.

Samuel Palmer married Anne Evans in Rowley, Essex Co., Province of Massachusetts Bay on August 21, 1738³. A son was born on April 11, 1739⁴ in Rowley but the child died ten days later on April 21, 1739 and no name is given in the Rowley Vital Records. Another child, whose name was Jane or Anne, was born April 20, 1740⁵ in Rowley. This Jane or Anne is not listed with her siblings on the list of the children of Samuel Palmer and Anne his wife that was provided to the town clerk of Methuen, Massachusetts before 1765.

Samuel and Anne and their small family moved to the western part of the Town of Methuen about 1741. Samuel Palmer and his fellow petitioners appear on the Town of Methuen tax list in February 1742.⁶

Samuel and Anne had several children where most are listed in the Methuen Vital Records as follows:

A son named Samuel was born in Methuen on August 19, 1742. He died a little more than twenty-one years later on November 16, 1763⁷. He was unmarried.

Next a Daughter, Bettee [later she was called Betsey], was born on March 13, 1744/45. She was baptized in the First Congregational Church in Methuen on March 17, 1745.⁸

Then a son, John, was born on January 24, 1746/47. John was baptized in the First Congregational Church on February 22, 1747⁹. He married Esther Chamberlain in the Second Church in Methuen on July 4, 1776¹⁰. John and Esther had a family in Methuen and lived their entire lives there. John was a farmer.

Then came James, born on a Saturday, the 13^th of an unknown month in 1749 but Baptized on May 21, 1749¹¹ in the First Congregational Church in Methuen as cited in the Methuen, Massachusetts Vital Records. He married Elizabeth Barker on October 6, 1772 in the First Congregational Church in Methuen by the Rev’d Mr. Christopher Sargent¹². They apparently had several children but no birth records exist for any of them. James spent his entire life in Methuen and was probably a cordwainer.

Phebe was born on July 11, 1751 and baptized on July 14, 1751 in the first church in Methuen. She died a few years later on December 25, 1754.¹³

Mary was then born on August 9, 1753¹⁴ and was baptized in the first church in Methuen on August 12, 1753. She was the last child to be baptized in the First Congregational Church in Methuen.

Another daughter is presumed born about 1755 or 1756 and probably named Phebe after the death of the earlier Phebe. It was common during this period that when a child died, the next born child of that gender was given the name of the deceased child. This practice is also said to be an old Puritan/Calvinist tradition. This is why there are two daughters named Phebe and later a second son named Samuel born to this couple after the first Samuel died. There is no specific record of this Phebe’s birth but there is a marriage record "returned" by the Rev. Mr. Eliphaz Chapman, that fits her almost perfectly. Phebe married Jesse Dow of Hampstead, New Hampshire on March 18, 1778 in the Second Church in Methuen¹⁵. Phebe would have been 22 or 23 years old at the time of her marriage, which would have been customary. It is perplexing to think of reasons why this Phebe would not have been on the list of Samuel Palmer’s children that was documented before 1765.

Asa is presumed born between 1758 and 1760 but probably closer to 1758. No record exists in the Methuen Vital Records of his birth but his name appears in the Methuen tax lists in 1779 for the first time. This could very well be the year when he attained the age of majority, twenty-one. In 1787 Samuel deeded some land to him and specifically calls him his son in that deed¹⁶. Asa married first Pricilla Parker of Dracut on April 5, 1787¹⁷. She died about 1804 or 1805. He married second, Lucy Bools shortly after their intention of marriage which was published on June 25,1806¹⁸. Asa remained in Methuen as a farmer until his death sometime during the year of 1815¹⁹. This child was also not listed in the family list provided by Samuel by 1765.

Joshua was the next child on the list and was born on November 6, 1761²⁰. Upon leaving the Palmer family homestead he apparently moved to Sandown, Rockingham County, New Hampshire where he married a woman named Rhoda and had a daughter named Molly. His wife died shortly thereafter. There is a baptismal record of Molly in the Salem, New Hampshire church records. After the death of his first wife, he moved around quite a bit and he remarried three more times having additional children with his third wife in New Hampshire. Finally settling and dying in Kingston, Rockingham County, New Hampshire after 1850.

The last child listed in the family of Samuel and Anne Palmer is another son named Samuel was born on July 3, 1764²¹. He was the next male child born after the death of the first child named Samuel. It is thought that he moved to Newbury, Massachusetts and later settled and died in the State of Maine. [Note: There is no doubt that this second Samuel was the son of Samuel and Anne. However, information obtained from the Palmer Families In America by Horace Wilbur Palmer about this child is highly suspect to this researcher. Given the numerous errors found in his record of the descendants of Samuel and Anne, I have trouble repeating in this work, any of the information related to this young Samuel from that work.]

2. Petition to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay to establish a Second Parish in the town of Methuen, Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1766, Massachusetts State Archives, John F. Kennedy Campus, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts

3. The Second Church of Methuen written and read to the Methuen Historical Society, February 12, 1896 by Mary E. Beedle, Phillips Library, Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

4. Palmer Families In America, Horace W. Palmer, 1878-1953 (Main Author), manuscript, LDS Film #0176583, pgs 4486-4563

5. Genealogical Record of the Descendants of William Palmer of Hampton, New Hampshire, 1638, 1998, by John C. Palmer

7. History of the Town of Methuen, by Mary MacFarlane, LDS film #0887749, Item 4