Margaret in the Moore Section, he would eventually be the sole surviving heir, as his brother JohnVasser’sonly son William would die without issue, and the property in this line would revert to Peter. However,Peter Vasser also had three sisters, Elizabeth, Ann, and Mildred who remain enigmas. One of them mayhave married Thomas Parnell whose estate, as documented below, would be appraised by Peter Vasser andwhose son Joseph Parnell and his family would appear to demonstrate a close familial bond with Peter Vasser’s son William and grandson William, Jr., as also documented below.
Thomas Parnell first appears in the surviving records on 6 June 1665 when he became involved withJohn Marshall in the complicated affairs involving the estate of William Westwray and his widow Mrs.Elizabeth [Scowne?] Marshall Westray, the first proved progenitor of the Marshall family of Isle of Wight.See the Marshall Section. On 4 August 1675, Parnell bought 250 acres from Francis Ayres, also a cooper,and his wife Jane, the widow of Humphrey Clarke and father of John Clarke who had become the secondhusband of Charles Barcroft’s granddaughter Elizabeth Sampson. See Boddie,
Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight,
p. 573; cf. the Barcroft Section, # 1, a. On 28 December 1677 and 9 February 1679, respectively,Edmund Palmer sold Thomas Parnell (a) 150 acres adjacent John Clarke and between Francis Ayres andAnthony Matthews, the third husband of Mrs. Anne Rogers Moore Matthews Davis, # 7 in the MooreSection; and (b) 548 acres witnessed by James Peden, the father-in-law of William Arrington (ca. 1662-ca.1725), who shared with Thomas Parnell’s sister Jemima Parnell Drake and John Williams, Sr., father-in-law of the other sister Mary Parnell Williams, many descendants of importance in the compiler’s research[for instance, # D, 3, a (6) below). See Boddie,
Seventeenth Century,
pp. 578. 585. On 21 January 1679and 20 April 1680, respectively, Thomas Parnell also patented (a) 150 acres adjacent Robert Flake, thesecond husband of Katherine Moore and step grandfather of Mrs. Margaret Vasser; and (b) 1,000 acresadjacent Hodges Council and Robert Lawrence, Jr. (brother of John Lawrence whose granddaughter SarahLawrence married William Moore, grandson of Mrs. Anne Rogers Moore Baron Matthews Davis [# 2, d,(1) in the Lawrence Section and # 7, a, (2) in the Moore Section]). See Nugent, Vol. 2, pp. 206, 270. Thelatter grant was deserted and patented by Colonel Arthur Smith in 1683, although Colonel Smith deededback 150 acres to Thomas Parnell on 6 October 1686, as proved by a deed of Thomas Parnell, Jr., notedbelow. In 1685, Thomas Parnell joined Alexander Matthews, probably the stepson of Mrs. Anne RogersMoore Baron Matthews Davis, in appraising the estate of Robert Edwards, the first husband of Mrs. MaryHunt Edwards Griffin Boddie, whereas the year before Alexander Matthews and Owen Griffin, who was tobecome her second husband, appraised the estate of Edward Rogers, brother of Mrs. Anne Rogers MooreBaron Matthews Davis. Mrs. Mary Hunt Edwards Griffin married (3) William Boddie whose will of 1712/17 mentioned his daughter Elizabeth, who had married Alexander Matthews. See Chapman,
Wills,
pp. 24, 58, 74; cf. Boddie,
Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight,
pp. 345ff., and the Moore Section, # 7.Alexander Matthews also witnessed the will in 1691/92 the will of John Williams, Sr., father-in-law of Thomas Parnell’s sister Mary, as discussed below.Thomas Parnell signed his will on 10 October 1687; probated 9 June 1688. Interestingly enough, thewills also probated on that same day included those of the aforementioned Thomas Atkinson, Jr. (whosewill was witnessed by Parnell), the compiler’s purported ancestor John Moore whose daughter Elizabethwould Mary Parnell’s son Joseph, and the aforementioned John Marshall. The appraisers of Parnell’sestate included the aforementioned Peter Vasser, his purportedly erstwhile brother-in-law. See the originalwill in Will and Deed Book # 2, p. 278, as the abstract by Mrs. Chapman,
Isle of Wight Wills,
pp. 28, 74, isinadequate, especially with regard to the language that suggests he was married twice. He devised to his“wellbeloved wife,” Susannah, who was his executrix; but he also bequeathed “my wives [sic] best suit” toone of his sisters and the second best suit to the other sister. It would appear that Parnell’s two sons wereby the first wife, purportedly a Vasser, and that he had three small girls by the second wife. The will leftthe plantation bought from Francis Ayres to his son Thomas as well as the 150 acres acquired by patent andthe 1,000-acre patent and the land bought from Edmund Palmer to Joseph.
He also mentioned his sisters
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