Rachel Kneeland
Wife of Samuel Foster, married at Boston on 5 Apr 1722, and mother of John Foster, who married Jane Lindsey; she probably also married Timothy Parmerly (Parmelee), with whom she had eight children. Probably a daughter of John Kneeland and Mary Green. Her brother Samuel Kneeland and his partner printed what was called "the first Bible printed, in America, in the English language."
Life
- 1705Born11 Aug 1705
Kneeland p. 52, "mostly from Bible records." Not found in Boston RC 24.
compiledprobable - 1722Married Samuel Foster5 Apr 1722, Boston, Massachusetts
"Samuel Foster & Rachel Kneeland / Int. reads [Samll.] / Mr. Joseph Sewall Presn. / Apr. 5, 1722" (RC 28:106, image checked). The publication is given as 8 March 1721-2 (Whitmore) or March 28, 1721 (Pierce); Mollie has 1721 and 1 Apr 1722.
documentedproven
Family
- Father
- John Kneelandcompiledprobable
- Mother
- Spouse 1
- Timothy Parmerly (Parmelee)
Kneeland 1897, "of Bradford," perhaps Branford, Connecticut [inferred]. They had eight children.
compiledprobable
Pedigree
Notes
Married (1) Samuel Foster, periwig-maker, at Boston on 5 Apr 1722, “Mr. Joseph Sewall” officiating (Boston RC 28:106); (2) “Timothy Parmerly, of Bradford,” and “had eight children” (Kneeland 1897, p. 52).
Her brother Samuel Kneeland (1697-1769) “served an apprenticeship with Bartholomew Green” and was “for a great length of time, printer to the governor and council.” He and his partner printed “an edition of the Bible in small 4to. This was the first Bible printed, in America, in the English language,” with a false London imprint (Isaiah Thomas, History of Printing 1:105-109); Thomas’s later editor notes that the historian Bancroft questioned the story. That partner was the second Timothy Green, son of Timothy of New London; Mollie calls him Mary Green’s brother.
Open questions
- Her death: “July 10, 1776, ae. 71” (Kneeland 1897) or “Rachel Parmelee death 10 Jun 1780 in New Haven” (a Connecticut church abstract cited on WikiTree, Kneeland-293)?
- Her Parmelee marriage. John Kneeland’s 1740 administration (no. 7389) may name her.
- Her mother: the colonial tree marks Mary Green as her mother as unproven; the page has John Kneeland’s wife Mary as her mother, inferred, probable, with Mary’s Green parentage open on Mary’s page.
Mollie's typescript
Mollie's Kneeland chart gives her birth on 11 Aug 1705, her marriage to Samuel Foster on 1 Apr 1722, and her death in 1776.
RACHEL KNEELAND (15) Aug. 11 1705 Died 1776 Married, 1 April 1722 Samuel Foster (6)
p. 124 →With her marriage to Samuel Foster, Mollie writes, the long line of Kneelands she traces came to its end.
Rachel Kneeland (15) was a daughter of John (14) who married Samuel Foster (6)(page 113.) Thus ended a long and illustrious line.
p. 130 →
Checked against the records
- ProvenSamuel Foster (b. 1701) was a periwig-maker
Confirmed. A deed names "Samuel Foster of Boston, periwig maker, and wife Rachel" with the widow and the daughter of Samuel Foster (b. 1676), which is the evidence for his parentage. It is dated 27 June 1722 (Suffolk Deeds 36:68), not 1724.
Read it in the book, p. 119 → - DisprovenRachel Kneeland married Samuel Foster on 1 April 1722
They married at Boston on 5 Apr 1722, by Mr. Joseph Sewall (Boston marriages, image checked). Mollie's Foster chart (p. 113) gives 1721.
Read it in the book, p. 124 → - DisprovenMary's brother Timothy Green was her son Samuel Kneeland's partner
The partner was the second Timothy Green, son of Timothy of New London, and so Mary's nephew if she was a Green of Cambridge. Kneeland and Green printed "the first Bible printed, in America, in the English language", under a false London imprint (Isaiah Thomas).
Read it in the book, p. 130 →
Connections
- In her ancestry
- 2 notable connections →
Every notable ancestor and famous relative that Rachel's own ancestors lead to, with the lines drawn down to her.
- Small world