[Carelton-Stickney.FTW]

Benjamin Kimball, born in 1637, about the time that his father moved

from Watertown to Ipswich, Massachusetts. He died 11 June 1695. He

was probably a resident of Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1659, a

carpenter by trade. Removed to Salisbury, Massachusetts, and was on

the trial jury in 1662. Was a resident of Rowley, Massachusetts, 12

May 1663, when he bought land in Rowley of Elizabeth Starrett of

Haverhill, Massachusetts. At this time Rowley included within its

limits the present Bradford, Georgetown, and Groveland. His land was

in what is now known as Bradford. On 20 Feb. 1668; at the first town

meeting in Merrimack, afterwards Bradford, he was chosen an overseer

of the town. He was called of that town, 16 March 1670, and 15 March

1674. On 6 Jan. 1675, he and his wife Mercy of Bradford,

Massachusetts, sold forty acres of land to the inhabitants of that

town for the use of the minister. On 23 Nov. 1667, he bought several

tracts of land. Among them was land, which once belonged to his

brother, Thomas Kimball, who was killed by an Indian on May 3, 1676.

He was cornet of horse troops and was known as 'Cornet Kimball.' He

and his brother, Richard Kimball, were soldiers in 1683 and 1684,

under Capt. Appleton.

His house was in the west parish of old Bradford, not far from the

ancient cemetery. He was a wheelwright and a farmer. He married in

Salisbury, Massachusetts, April 1661, Mercy, daughter of Robert and

Ann Hazeltine.* She was born 16, 8mo, 1642, and died 5 Jan. 1707/8.

She was one of the first members received into the first church in

Bradford, when she, with sixteen other women, were admitted 7

January 1682/3. Her will, made 14 May 1706, was proven 2 February

1707-8. She gives the names of her children in the will. His

inventory showed that he was well off for the times. The total

amount of the estate was £1060.7s. Among the assets was a one-fourth

interest in a sawmill in Haverhill, Massachusetts, near the Amesbury

line that he bought of Matthew Harriman. This interest was handed

down in the family for several generations. The gravestones of

Benjamin and Mercy Kimball may still be seen in the cemetery at

Bradford.

• Robert Hazeltine and his brother John were among the earliest

settlers or that part or Rowley that is now known as Bradford, and

Robert had afterwards permission to ferry passengers across the

Merrimack river. The first marriage recorded on the Rowley books is

'Robert Hazeltine and Ann his wife were married 10mo 23, 1639,' but

her family name is not given.