This John Parker is often found linked in World Family Tree entries to a Robert Parker, butcher, who was born about 1601, probably in Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England, arrived in Cambridge about 1634, and died in 1685. Research quickly shows the claim that this John was the son of Robert to be untenable. Robert's known first son, Benjamin, was born in 1636, and he later had a son, John, born about 1640. Both Benjamin and John are known to have predeceased Robert, as stated in Robert's will, dated 1684. Robert's son, John, would be too young to be the father of John and Joanna's children. John, the husband of Joanna, is known to have been born about 1615, based on records that he was 71 at his death in 1686; Robert Parker would have been only about 14 in 1615. Robert Parker is listed in Lucius R. Paige's "History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877" (p. 622), with no connection suggested with this John Parker. Paige provides his own entry for this John Parker, and offers no suggestion of a relationship with Robert.

This claim does appear in a genealogical source: "Newhall Ancestry" (1899). Newhall writes: "The Parker family has been a puzzle to me as well as to many other genealogists, having searched everywhere in order to solve the puzzle, but it proves a puzzle yet, and perhaps will be forever. I have put these in the order which seems most reasonable, though some others have some doubts about its correctness." Newhall starts his list with Robert, saying he was born about 1602, but lists only some of the children known to be Robert's. Most telling is that he gives no birth date for John, and offers the estimated death date of Robert's established son, John (1684), even though the date of the will of John, the husband of Joanna, and vital records concerning his death, render that date absolutely impossible, and show that this John was too old to have been the son of Robert. Even though Newhall says he finds his list to be the "most reasonable", his overlooking of such a basic detail, supported by solidly proven original source documents, calls his notion of "reasonable" seriously into question.

Samuel F. Smith's "History of Newton, Mass. Town and City, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" (Boston, MA: The American Logotype Co, 1880) records the standard history:

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John Parker was one of the earliest settlers of Hingham. He probably came over in the James, of London, in 1635. He had land granted him in Hingham in 1636 and 1640. He was a carpenter. He removed from Hingham, and bought a tract of land in the easterly part of Cambridge Village, in March, 1650, adjoining the lands of John Ward and Vincent Druce. By his wife, Joanna, he had five sons and five daughters. He died in 1686, aged 71. His estate, appraised by Captain Issac Williams and John Spring, amounted to L412 2s. His will is dated Sept. 7, 1686, and recorded in the Suffolk Registry, 11th volume. [p. 96]

Parker, John (d. 1886), left Hingham about 1650 with Nicholas Hodgden, John Winchester, Thomas Hammond and Vincent Druce, and all settled in the same neighborhood, in the southeast part of Newton. By his will he gave his son Isaac the homestead, about twenty-eight acres; to his son Jonathan, forty-six acres of woodland, near the land of Captain Prentice; to his son John, eleven acres of land "whereon he has erected his new dwelling-house, and seven acres meadow and woodland." His inventory shows a house and twenty-eight acres of land adjoining, and about ninety acres elsewhere. [p. 148]
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Though long accepted, there is little to actually support this account outside the statements made in John's will.

It is generally speculated that John Parker migrated to Hingham in the ship "James" from London, but this theory seems highly questionable. Several sources record the "James" arriving with a John Parker, carpenter, in 1635, but the ship arrived in Boston, and the John Parker aboard is clearly a different man. Edward C. Parker Jr reports that he has examined the actual records at Hingham, Mass., and says those records make it very unlikely that the John Parker who purchased a farm in Cambridge Village in March of 1650-51 had even come through Hingham at all. As yet, however, I have been unable to locate his notes on this particular line of research. It should be noted, however, that Smith's assertion "John Parker was one of the earliest settlers of Hingham" is far from conclusive, and may rest in large degree on a similar claim by the earlier "History of the Early Settlement of Newton, County of Middlesex, Massachusetts" (1854), by Francis Jackson. Smith was clearly echoing Jackson, as Jackson's sketch of John Parker of Cambridge Village is nearly identical to Smith's. The only notable difference is a discrepancy in the value of John Parker's estate; Smith gives it as L412 2s, while Jackson records "inventory, L404, 3s. 6d." Neither author was making a particular research of this John Parker, and Jackson probably just relied on a cursory examination of available records without a determination that they all actually referred to the same man. Likewise, it is interesting to note that Paige makes no mention of John and Joanna Parker coming from Hingham, writing only "John, resided on the south side of the river (now Newton), and by w. Joanna, had..."; also of note, Paige does not echo the supposition that John's two eldest daughters, Mary and Martha, were born in Hingham, offering only dates for each of the children. In fact, however, March of 1650-51 is established only as the date when John purchased his farm; the Middlesex Deeds (see below) actually read "6. 6. 1650", which would have been 6 August 1650 under the then current Julian calendar. There is no definite indication that John and Joanna hadn't already been residing in Cambridge or Cambridge Village. James Savage's "A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, before 1692" demonstrates this, for even though Volume III reports that John came from Hingham, in Volume II Savage says of John's second daughter, Martha: "This Martha was b. 1649, May 1, in Cambridge". Savage's source for Martha's birth is clearly the Vital Records of Cambridge, which significantly record the births of Martha and her older sister, Mary, both of whom are often supposed to have been born in Hingham. The Cambridge Vital Records argue against this assumption, suggesting John and Joanna were in Cambridge or Cambridge Village as early as January of 1647-48, when Mary was born, and would seem quite sufficient to call the rest of John's supposed early history seriously into question.

Parker was a common name in New England at the time, and the name John even more so. Savage's "Dictionary" illustrates this, providing listings for a total of nineteen men named 'John Parker', and in listing another John Parker residing in Newton, says "but as there were two Johns at Newton, one distinguished as South, the other as East, it may be hard to determine." Smith claims that our John was the one who settled in the eastern part of Cambridge Village, while Newhall claims he settled in the southern part. Jackson and Paige both agree that he lived south of the river, in the area that would be split off to become Newton. Two more possible pieces of the puzzle are found in Savage's "Dictionary", with listings for two John Parkers who are said to have arrived about the time supposed for our John Parker. The first Savage lists as "John, Boston, 1635, a carpenter, of Marlborough, Co. Wilts, came that year in the James, arrived 3d June from Southampton, with w. Jane...", who settled "at Muddy River, near Brookline". The second is listed as "John, Hingham, 1636; rem. to Taunton, of which, with William, probably elder bro., he was purchaser, 1637." Likewise, John Farmer's "Genealogical Register of First Settlers of New England" (1829), which predates even Jackson, records "JOHN, carpenter, of Boston, 1635, had s.'s. Thomas, b. 1635; Noah, b. 1638... JOHN, Cambridge Village, 1650, d. 1713 (sic); he had s's. John, b. 1652;... JOHN, Kittery, was admitted freeman, 1652. JOHN, Hingham, 1636." Farmer mistakenly gives 1713 as the death date of John of Cambridge Village, which is actually the date of the death of that John's son, John, but like Paige, offers no suggestion that John of Cambridge Village came from Hingham. These listings make very clear how difficult it is to be certain of tracing a single individual with accuracy. It thus seems quite probable that Jackson found records of two or more John Parkers and assumed they were one. If correct, then Smith and others repeated the mistake, either by accepting Jackson at face value or by failing to do adequate research to determine that these were separate individuals.

In fact, the entire Hingham theory appears very likely to rest solely on a coincidence that can be identified through a careful comparing of records. It is commonly recorded that John Parker moved from Hingham with Thomas Hammond, Vincent Druce, Nicholas Hodgdon and John Winchester. These other men are said to have settled in Hingham about the same time as one of the John Parkers who resided there. Deeds show that Hodgdon purchased land in the area of Cambridge, which he sold to Druce and Hammond in December of 1650. Druce and Hammond also purchased 16 acres near land of a John Parker in Muddy River. As has already been demonstrated, however, the John Parker of Muddy River was not John of Cambridge Village, and was not the John Parker who had settled in Hingham about the same time as Druce and Hammond. The Middlesex deeds recording the sale of land to Druce and Hammond state "1650. Nicholas Hodgsden (sic) to Thomas Hammond and Vincent Druce, both of Hingham, joint purchasers of sixty-seven acres of land on Cambridge Hill; also, twenty-nine acres more, adjoining John Parker's land, north-northwest and northeast", while the earlier deed of sale to John Parker records "6. 6. 1650. Nicholas Hodgsden and wife Elizabeth, of Boston [Brookline], to John Parker, for L8, 6s. 8d, one third of all land he bought of Robert Bradish." While the lists of the early settlers of Newton offered by both Jackson and Smith claim John Parker came from Hingham, the Middlesex deeds only support that conclusion for Hammond and Druce, who are explicitly referred to as "both of Hingham", but not for John Parker, for whom no such reference was made. It seems quite likely that this is the thread used to mistakenly connect John Parker of Cambridge Village to Hingham, and having been identified as such, can be used to disprove the myth.

The history of John's wife, Joanna, is equally uncertain. She is usually supposed to have been born in Hingham about 1623, even though Hingham wasn't established until 1635. It seems more likely that she was born in England, and that she and John were married there since no record of their marriage has been found in the Massachusetts vital records. I would tentatively theorize that John and Joanna left England about 1645, as most of their children's births are recorded in the Vital Records of Cambridge, suggesting that they were all born there. Given this timing, they might have been motivated to move by the turmoil of the ongoing civil war between the forces of King Charles I and those of Parliament. This, however, is entirely speculation on my part.

The date of John's death is estimated from his will (recorded in Suffolk Co. Probate Records, vol XI, case 1507, p. 38). John's will was dated 7 Sep 1686, proved by witnesses John Ward and Thomas Greenwood on 28 Oct 1686, and executed 11 Nov 1686. The will, in which John describes himself as "being weak and ill in body", demonstrates that he was alive but in failing health in early September of 1686, while he was dead by October 28 when his will was proved. Given that the proving of the will would probably take place within a week or two of the death, it seems a reasonable theory that John died in mid October.

Cambridge Village is a former name of the town now called Newton. The latter name was officially adopted in 1691. The town of Cambridge was originally settled about 1631, its location determined by the perceived need for a fortified town along the Charles River between Watertown and Charlestown, and was at first referred to simply as the "New Town". In March of 1632-33, a boundary settlement with Charlestown formally referred to the new settlement as "New-towne". An order of the General Court declared on 2 May 1638 "That Newtowne shall henceforth be called Cambridge." [Massachusetts Colonial Records - vol. I, p. 228] A map of Cambridge for the period between 1644 and 1655 shows it encompassing present-day Cambridge, as well as the districts to the northwest of Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, and Billerica, and to the southwest, Brighton and what would come to be called Newton. Each of these developed an early name as a part of Cambridge, such as parts of Lexington being known as Cambridge Farms. The district farthest to the southwest would be known both as New Cambridge and Cambridge Village. After its petition to separate from Cambridge was granted by the General Court, the new name of 'Newton' was authorized.

1. Mary Parker b: 28 JAN 1647/1648 in Poss. Cambridge,Middlesex,Massachusetts
2. Martha Parker b: 1 MAY 1649 in Poss. Cambridge,Middlesex,Massachusetts
3. John Parker b: 15 FEB 1651/1652 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
4. Joanna Parker b: 16 JAN 1653/1654 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
5. Jeremiah Parker b: 16 JAN 1653/1654 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
6. Thomas Parker b: 1 FEB 1657/1658 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
7. Sarah Parker b: 6 JAN 1658/1659 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
8. Isaac Parker b: 15 MAR 1662/1663 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
9. Jonathan Parker b: 6 NOV 1665 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts
10. Lydia Parker b: 15 MAY 1667 in Cambridge Village (Newton),Middlesex,Massachusetts

1. Title: History of the Early Settlement of Newton, County of Middlesex, Massachusetts. From 1639 to 1800. With a Genealogical Register of its Inhabitants, prior to 1800.
   Author: Francis Jackson
   Abbrev: Francis Jackson
   Publication: Boston: Stacy and Richardson, 1854
   Abbrev: History of the Early Settlement of Newton
   Page: p. 376
   Text: PARKER, JOHN,... He d. 1686, ae. 71... His will... proved Oct. 1686.
   Quality: 2
2. Title: History of Newton, Massachusetts, Town and City, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time
   Author: Samuel Francis Smith
   Abbrev: Samuel Francis Smith
   Publication: Boston, MA: The American Logotype Co, 1880
   Abbrev: History of Newton, Massachusetts, Town and City, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time
   Page: p. 96
   Text: John Parker... He died in 1686, aged 71.
   Quality: 2
3. Title: Vital Records of Newton, Massachusetts, to the year 1850
   Publication: Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1905
   Abbrev: Vital Records of Newton, Mass, to 1850
   Page: p. 487, Deaths
   Text: John, ____, 1686, a. 71. G.R.1.
   *G.R.1. - gravestone record, Centre Street Cemetery, Newton.
   Quality: 2
4. Title: History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877 : with a genealogical register
   Author: Lucius R. Paige
   Abbrev: Lucius R. Paige
   Publication: Boston: H. O. Houghton and Co., 1877
   Abbrev: History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877
   Page: p. 622
   Text: John the f. prob. d. about 1686, in which year his will is dated.
   Quality: 2