J. H. Temple, History of the Town of Palmer, Massachusetts, Early Known as the Elbow Tract, 1716-1889 (1889)

Read in the archive.org full text (October 2026) to check the Chapin Book’s account of Jonathan Chapin of the Elbows (Palmer).

• Genealogical register (p. 433): “THE CHAPIN FAMILY came from Springfield. Jonathan and Mina [Anna] Chapin; he b. 1710, d. July 3, 1780; she b. 1715, d. May 27, 1770.” Children: Anna (b. 21 Mar 1737, d. 1756), “Jonathan, Jun., b. Oct. 12, 1738, m. Bethna Parsons, 1771,” Luke (b. 1740, d. at Mount Independence, Sept. 1776), Gideon, Joseph, Abner, Gad, Chloe and Shadrac. Temple names no parents for the elder Jonathan.
• The proprietors’ grants of the Elbow tract: “That Jonathan Chapin, Jun., Hold a Hundred acre Lot, Forty-two acres as already laid out to him, including his Improvements.”
• “Descriptive Roll of men enlisted in Col. John Worthington’s regiment, invasion of Canada, 1759 … attached to Capt. John Furnass’ Co.” (pp. 155-156): “Jonathan Chapin, of Palmer, age —, enlisted Apr. 6, discharged Dec. 3.”

The marriage to “Bethna Parsons, 1771” conflicts with the Chapin Book and the DAR, which marry the younger Jonathan to Abigail Munn (their son Jotham was born in 1764); the Chapin Book gives the elder Jonathan a second marriage on 2 May 1771 to “Bertha Parsons, widow,” which is probably the same one. See Jonathan Chapin (1738).