Robert Parish

     Robert Parish was born circa 1635.¹ He married first Seaborne Bachelder, widow of John Cromwell, daughter of William Bachelder, on 22 May 1663 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.² He married second Mercy Crisp, daughter of Benjamin Crisp and Bridget (—?—) (Crisp), on 11 April 1667 at Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.^3,4 He married third Elizabeth Blanchard, daughter of John Blanchard and Hannah Hills, circa 1685.¹ He died before 5 September 1709 when his will was proved.¹
     
     On an equal basis in records, the name is spelled both with and without the h, and often with two r's. After Seaborne's death in 1664, Robert Parish moved to Groton where he lived for ten years.¹

     On 28 October 1670, a writ was issued against him for selling liquor to the Indians. Thomas Cooper, about 21, who had lived with Parish for seven years, and his stepson John Cromwell, about 15, testified against him.¹ Parish had made an agreement with Thomas Cooper on 28 May 1669, probably when the latter came of age, but in November 1670, Cooper sued him. Some of the testimony dealt with the relations between Parish and his Cromwell stepson, and Cornelius Waldo testified that before Parish married his second wife in 1667, he had "kept John Cromwell very badly in apparell." The court ordered that the boy should live with Joseph Richardson of Chelmsford until the next session when he should be placed with some of his friends in Charlestown or Boston.¹

     Robert Parish was one of the signers of a petition to the General Court in 1673 asking for the grant of the territory which became the town of Dunstable, and, the petition being granted, he moved his family to the new town.¹ King Philip's war broke out soon after, and Robert saw service under Captain Samuel Moseley, receiving £1 : 10 : 0 on 10 December 1675.¹ Late in 1676 Robert Parish was appointed assistant to Colonel Jonathan Tyng who had been given charge by the province of the "praying Indians" of the Pennacook and Wamesit tribes, about sixty in number, who lived in a village in Dunstable. Violent persecution during Philip's War had driven them into the deep woods to the north, but starvation eventually drove some back to the Dunstable village.¹

     Robert Parish was a Dunstable selectman in 1683, 1687, 1688, 1694 and from 1699 through 1702. He represented Dunstable in the General Court in 1689. In that year, King William's war having broken out, he was one of the townsmen petitioning the Court that twenty "footmen" or infantry men be assigned to Dunstable for a month to guard the corn-mill and to protect the inhabitants while they got in their hay.⁵

     On 9 October 1701, Robert Parish was one of the proprietors of Dunstable who received a grant from Colonel Tyng.⁵ About 1705 Robert Parish moved again, to Rumney Marsh [Chelsea, Suffolk County, Massachusetts]. There on 21 August 1709, Robert Parish made his will which begins "I Robert Parris formerly of the town of Dunstable now Living in Rumbledemarsh." To his wife Elizabeth Parish he gave all his homestead which lay between the land which was formerly Mr. Weld's and the land which was formerly Nathaniel Blanchard's, joining on the west side of the Merrineck [Merrimac] river, as recorded in the Dunstable town book of records, and the meadow belonging thereto, for her life, and upon her decease it was to be equally divided between his daughters Marcy Richerdson and Hannah Goffe. His "out lands" were to be sold to pay his debts and any overplus of land to be divided between the said daughters. To Hezekiah Usher [a nephew of his third wife], fifty acres of land which "my father John Blanchard gave to my wife in his will ... and that fifty acres of land that her grandfather Hill gave to her in his will." Also to his wife, his cattle, household furniture, personal and movable estate, and he appointed her sole executrix. He signed the will "Robert Parrish." Witnesses: John Waite of Boston, Sara Usher, James Paterson of Dunstable. Proved 5 September 1709. The executrix's bond was also signed by John Waite and James Paterson, Elizabeth Foxcroft and Robert Webber witnessing their signatures.⁶