Thomas and John Wiswall, ancestors of Anna Parker (Wiswall) White, both prominent among the early settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts, came from England in 1635, leaving behind them brothers: Adam, Abiel and Jonathan. This record deals with the descendants of Thomas Wiswall. Both were elders of the church, both selectmen and subscribers to the school fund. Thomas, the younger brother, was a subscriber in 1641, selectman 1644 to 1652; he died December 6, 1683. No monument marks his grave, but that over the grave of Elder John states he was born 1601, died 1687, age eighty-six years, which gives the approximate birth of Elder Thomas Wiswall. His farm of four hundred acres was in the limits of Dorchester and included a pond that bore his name. His house stood upon the southerly bank of the pond and is described in his will. On the day Rev. John Eliot (2) was ordained pastor of the Dorchester church, July 20, 1664, Thomas Wiswall was ordained ruling elder and assistant pastor in inspecting and disciplining the flock. He married (first) Elizabeth. Children:
- Enoch, born 1633;
- Esther, 1635;
- Ichabod, 1637;
- Noah, of further mention;
- Mary;
- Sarah, baptized 1643;
- Ebenezer, born 1646.
Elder Wiswall married (second) Isabella Farmer, a widow from Ansley, England. She survived him and died in Billerica, Massachusetts, May, 1686.
(II) Captain Noah Wiswall, son of Elder Thomas and Elizabeth Wiswall, was baptized in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1638. He was killed in battle with the Indians at Wheelwrights Pond, July 6, 1690. He was a man of education, and was employed in 1681 to transcribe the town records; was selectman in 1685; assessor in 1686; served on important committees; he was captain of the military company. In 1690 a band of French and Indians were committing depredations and in battle with them Captain Wiswall was slain. Tradition says he had a son John, who fell in the same battle. Lands were granted the heirs of Captain Noah Wiswall, in 1683, for his patriotic service. He married, December 10, 1664, Theodosia, daughter of John Jackson. Children:
- Thomas, of further mention;
- Elizabeth, born July 30, 1668; married, December 28, 1693, Rev. Thomas Greenwood, of Rehoboth, Massachusetts;
- Caleb;
- John (perhaps);
- Margaret, born January 1, 1672, married Nathaniel Parker;
- Mary;
- Esther, born January 2, 1678;
- Sarah, born May 11, 1680, married, 1702, Joseph Cheney.
(III) Lieutenant Thomas Wiswall, son of Captain Noah and Theodosia (Jackson) Wiswall, was born February 28, 1666, died 1709. He inherited the homestead of his father, and was highway surveyor, 1694; constable, 1699; selectman, 1706-07. He married, July, 1696, Hannah Cheney, who survived him and married (second) David Newman, of Rehoboth. Children:
- Hannah, born October 15, 1697;
- Noah, of further mention;
- Sarah, March 4, 1701, married, 1730, John Newman;
- Mary, October 1, 1702;
- Elizabeth, August 25, 1704, married Nathaniel Longley;
- Thomas;
- Ichabod.
(IV) Captain Noah (2) Wiswall, son of Lieutenant Thomas and Hannah (Cheney) Wiswall, was born September 7, 1699, died June 13, 1786. He inherited the homestead, and in 1744 rebuilt the house. He was selectman three years. He was one of the earliest Baptists in Newton, having been baptized in 1754, and was one of the founders of the Baptist church in Newton in 1780. The first meetings were held in his house, and he gave the land on which their first meeting house was erected. S. F. Smith's "life of Reverend Mr. Grafton" states that Captain Noah was in the battle of Lexington. Three of his sons and some of his sons-in-law were in the East Newton Company, commanded by his son, Captain Jeremiah Wiswall. After the company had marched for Lexington, he started on foot and alone to follow them, saying, "I wish to see what the boys are doing." It seems almost impossible that he could have endured the march and the fatigues of the day, as he was then seventy-six years of age, but the roll of the East Newton Company, in the battle of Lexington, now in the office of the secretary of state of Massachusetts and sworn to by the captain of that company before Judge Fuller, shows that he was in the company, and also several other aged men were volunteers in the ranks of the company on that day. He married (first) in 1720, Thankful, daughter of Jeremiah Fuller; she died in 1745. Married (second) in 1752, Deliverance, daughter of Ebenezer Kenrick, of Brookline. Children by first wife:
- Thomas;
- Elizabeth, married, December 17, 1741, William Baldwin;
- Jeremiah, born October 27, 1725;
- Thankful, September 1, 1727, died 1728;
- John;
- Thankful, August 11, 1729, married, 1750, Ebenezer Gee;
- Mary, April 1, 1731, married, 1752, Samuel Norcross;
- Sarah, December 23, 1734, married, 1761, Dr. John King;
- Esther, December 2, 1737, married, 1768, Benjamin White;
- Noah, of further mention;
- Samuel;
- Ebenezer, 1742;
- Margaret, February 24, 1744, married, 1766, Thomas Palmer;
- Hannah, March 31, 1745, married, 1769, Ebenezer Richards, of Dedham.
(V) Noah (3), son of Captain Noah (2) and Thankful (Fuller) Wiswall, was born July 7, 1740. He married, December, 1769, Mary Palmer, and settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In 1796 his estate was set off from Fitchburg and annexed to Westminster. Children:
- Mary, born April 4, 1770, married ———— White; her only child Juliet was left an orphan when an infant and was reared and educated by her uncle, Joseph Wiswall, who married her when seventeen years of age, a sin his Puritan mother never forgave him. They resided in Troy, New York, a few years, then removed to Mobile, Alabama, where she died; he married (second) the widow of General Yates, of revolutionary fame.
- Noah, October 22, 1772; no authentic record of him is found.
- John Palmer, January 29, 1775; married (first) Melita Green, settled near Burlington, Vermont; married (second) Sarah Thurston; he is buried in the old Mount Ida cemetery, Troy, New York.
- Ebenezer, of further mention.
- Jane, April 5, 1779.
- William, March 11, 1781.
- Joseph, February 2, 1784.
- Japheth, November 18, 1785.
- Seth, May 10, 1787.
- Sarah, September 17, 1788.
- Howard, February 18, 1791.
- Nancy, November 16, 1792.
(VI) Ebenezer, fourth child of Noah (3) and Mary (Palmer) Wiswall, was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, March 13, 1777, died July 18, 1856. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm in Westminster; his first business venture was in Boston, where he failed, and removed to Troy in 1814. Receipts found among his papers after death showed that he had paid debts resulting from his failure in Boston to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. He was in mercantile business in Troy for a time, but later was extensively interested in the ferry companies between Troy and West Troy; also being heavily interested in land companies for the development of properties in South Troy, Cohoes and West Troy. He purchased a farm in Watervliet from his brother Seth, and in 1823 built a country mansion to which he removed in that year, his former residence having been in Troy. He was a shrewd, capable business man and bore an unblemished character. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Troy. He married, in June, 1803, his cousin, Ann Parker, of Newton, Massachusetts, daughter of Samuel and Anna (Palmer) Parker. She died February 28, 1849; an inmate of his home for many years was his mother-in-law, Anna Palmer Parker, who died in 1841, at the age of eighty-eight years, the result of a fall and a broken hip. She was a remarkable woman, and embroideries made by her of exquisite design and workmanship are yet preserved in the family. Children: Three died in infancy; Eben, born August 8, 1806, lived in Troy; John Parker, of further mention; Jane, fifth child and second daughter, was sent to Newton for better educational advantages, died of typhoid fever in Troy, and was buried in the old Third street burying ground, now the site of the City Hall, her remains having been removed to her brother's lot in Albany Rural cemetery.
(VII) John Parker, son of Ebenezer and Ann (Parker) Wiswall, was born March 20, 7814, died October 1, 1875. He was a farmer by occupation, his farm, having been inherited from his father, lying in the great bend of the Hudson ("The Boght"). He was an attendant of the Methodist Episcopal church and a Republican in politics. He married, October 21, 1840, Sarah, born July 11, 1822, died January 1, 1906, third child of George and Rachel (Clute) Mark (see Mark V). Children:
- Anna Parker, of further mention;
- George, married Althea Best;
- Edward H., married Harriet Lobdell; they have one child, Alice, who married Dr. George S. Haswell;
- Isaac, died aged fifteen.
(VII) Anna Parker, daughter of John Parker, and Sarah (Mark) Wiswall, was born April 1, 1842. She married at the Wiswall mansion, September 11, 1879, John White, born May 11, 1845, son of George Isaac White, died December 16, 1856. George I. White came to the United States from Warminster, Wiltshire, England, married Clarissa Waterman, of the town of Watervliet, Albany county, New York, daughter of Frederick S. Waterman. John White was born in Albany, New York, and educated in the public schools. He began his business life as clerk in his uncle's store, then clerk in the office of the county clerk of Albany county. At that time West Troy was an important lumber centre and one of the leading firms was S. H. Waterman, an uncle of John White, who gave the young man a good position in his office, where he remained several years. He next was employed in the office of George M. Wiswall, later returning with Mr. Waterman, where he remained until 1885. In that year he engaged in business for himself as a wholesale excelsior dealer, also including hay and grain, dealing in car-lot quantities; with offices and home at Watervliet, New York. He is a Republican in politics; member of the Exempt Firemen's Association, having been a charter member of Oswald Hose Company; is a member with his wife of the Methodist Episcopal church. Children:
- George Wiswall, born December 23, 1881, an expert electrician; lives in Watervliet; married Anna Greis and has a son, Edward Wiswall White, born November 15, 1906.
- ————, died in infancy.
- Sarah Parker, born January 1, 1885, graduate of Watervliet high school, 1906; took a special course at Syracuse University one year; now a student at Cornell University, medical department, and will graduate M.D. class of 1911 (D. V.).
(The Mark Line)
Sarah (Mark) Wiswall, mother of Anna Parker (Wiswall) White, descended from Isaac Mark, who was born, lived and died in Ellerton, Cumberland county, England, as did his wife Mary. They were the parents of six children, of whom Thomas was the second.
(II) Thomas, son of Isaac and Mary Mark, was born at Ellerton, Cumberland county, England, died in Albany County, New York, October, 1812, aged eighty-four years. In 1775 he came to the American colonies, settling in Cherry Valley, New York. This was a troublous time, and the settlers were greatly harassed by the Indians. At one time Thomas Mark was sent to Albany, nearly one hundred miles away, for help. He made the journey on horseback between dawn and dark, returning with the needed relief. Soon after this Thomas Mark removed with his family to Albany county, where he cultivated a farm under lease from the patroon. He married, in England, Mary ————, and had four daughters and a son, all born in England. They all came to America together, the children being of adult years. On the ship was a family by the name Haswell with whom they became acquainted, six marriages between the children resulting from this chance acquaintance. Children:
- Sarah, born August 12, 1751, died October 11, 1823; married Robert Haswell, born March 22, 1755, died January 11, 1820, in town of Hoosick, Rensselaer county, New York.
- Mary, December 3, 1755, died April 14, 1812; married Joseph Haswell, born January 18, 1753, died December 7, 1813, in Hoosick.
- Elizabeth, married Thomas Haswell, born February 1, 1764, died May 31, 1802, in Hoosick.
- Isaac, of further mention.
- Deborah, married (first) Richard Haswell, born June 11, 1765, died March 2, 1792, near Watervliet; married (second) Isaac Lawson.
(III) Isaac, only son of Thomas and Mary Mark, was born in Ellerton, Cumberland county, England, in 1757, died April 25, 1843; came to America in 1775. He married (first) Mary Haswell, sister to the husbands of his sisters. She was born July 3, 1761, died August 19, 1782. Married (second) Margaret Haswell, sister to his first wife, born October 13, 1767, died February 13, 1856. Isaac Mark was a farmer living about three miles north of Watervliet near the present city line of Cohoes. Child by first wife: Sarah, married Rev. Cyrus Stebbins. Children by second wife:
- Mary, married Dirck Clute;
- Elizabeth, married Isaac Haswell, born February 11, 1787;
- Margaret, married John Haswell;
- George, of further mention;
- Deborah;
- Jane, born January 14, 1797, died July 2, 1872, married Jacob L. Lansing, died October 24, 1883;
- Hannah, married Rev. Joshua Poor, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church;
- Anna, married Dr. Ammon Hammond;
- Matilda.
(IV) George, son of Isaac and Margaret (Haswell) Mark, was born February 5, 1792, died September 18, 1864. He married Rachel Clute, sister of Dirck Clute, his brother-in-law. She was born November 4, 1794, died July 31, 1878. Children:
- George, married Frances Mary Haswell;
- Sarah, of further mention;
- Mary;
- Isaac;
- Margaret.
(V) Sarah, daughter of George and Rachel (Clute) Mark, was born on the old Mark homestead near Cohoes, New York, July 11, 1822, married, October 21, 1840, John Parker Wiswall (see Wiswall VII).