♂Thomas Perkins

Thomas Perkins (15 October 1681 – 1761), called Ensign Thomas Perkins, was a Topsfield farmer’s son who moved to the Maine frontier at Cape Porpoise, later Arundel and now Kennebunkport, in 1719, kept its town and proprietors’ books for many years, and lived there in a garrison house, one of the fortified homes where settlers took shelter during the wars with the Wabanaki. A family genealogy published in 1889 records that he died of a cancer of the face in 1761. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Thomas Perkins (1724–1794).

Early life

He was born at Topsfield, Massachusetts, on 15 October 1681, entered in the town record as “Thomas, s. Elisha”. He was the eldest child of Elisha Perkins and Katherine Towne, who had married at Topsfield on 23 February 1680, and the first of ten children born to them between 1681 and 1702. His father was a farmer on part of the old Perkins homestead and held many town offices, among them selectman; his grandfather was Deacon Thomas Perkins, an early settler of Topsfield. His mother was a daughter of Jacob Towne and Katherine Symonds, and so a niece of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Estey, two of the women hanged as witches at Salem in 1692, when Thomas was ten.

His mother died on 2 July 1714, according to the Perkins genealogy, and his father married again the next year, taking as his second wife Elizabeth (Knight) Towne, the widow of Samuel Towne, whom the genealogy calls his first wife’s uncle. Elisha Perkins lived until 18 February 1741.

Cape Porpoise

Thomas was nearly thirty-eight when he left Topsfield for Cape Porpoise in 1719. On 26 November of that year he came back to marry Mary Wildes, and the Topsfield register enters the couple as “Thomas, of Caporpose, and Mary Willds”. The Perkins genealogy notes that the records call him “Ensign Thomas Perkins, of Cape Porpoise”, and his son’s baptism in 1724 calls the boy “Thomas, s. Ensign Thomas”. An ensign was the lowest commissioned officer of a militia company, the one who carried its colours; the records found so far do not say when or where he held the rank.

Mary went back to her parents at Topsfield for the births of their first two children, Judith (baptised in 1721) and Thomas (baptised 28 June 1724). Judith later married Benjamin Durrell. Four more children followed: Mary, who married Eliphalet Perkins, a son of Captain Thomas Perkins of the town’s other Perkins family; Sarah, who married Israel Stone; and John and Ephraim, who both died young.

Charles Bradbury’s History of Kennebunk Port (1837) records that Thomas served as town clerk for several years and as clerk of the proprietors until his death. His son Thomas later held the same town clerkship and represented Arundel in the General Court. Mary died at Arundel on 1 April 1742, and the Perkins genealogy dates Thomas’s death, from the cancer of the face, to 1761. Both the cause of death and the garrison house come from compiled family histories, not from a record of the time.

Notes

The York County probate files hold a bond dated 6 January 1761 by which a Thomas Perkins of Arundel was bound as administrator of the estate of “Thomas Perkins of Arundel aforesaid, Esquire, deceased”, with John Sewall of York, physician, and Abner Perkins of Arundel, yeoman, as sureties. A letter of 4 January 1762 addresses Abner Perkins as administrator of the estate of “Thomas Perkins late of Arundel, Gent.”, which was insolvent. These papers are probably his estate, the younger Thomas acting as administrator; if so, he died before 6 January 1761 rather than later in that year. The identification has not been confirmed, and Abner Perkins does not appear among the children named by Bradbury, the Wildes genealogy or the Perkins genealogy.

Kennebunkport had a second, unrelated Thomas Perkins family, that of Captain Thomas Perkins, who came from Greenland, New Hampshire, in 1720. The two are kept apart here.