Anne Parker Noyes

Biography

Anne Noyes remained in England while two of her sons established households across the Atlantic. Her will makes that separation explicit. Writing at Cholderton, in Wiltshire near the Hampshire county boundary in southern England, on March 18, 1655/56, she named James and Nicholas as her sons then living in New England, the region now forming the northeastern corner of the United States, and left each a small monetary bequest.

She had already spent more than thirty years as a widow. After her husband, the Reverend William Noyes, died in 1622, she became administrator of his estate. His inventory was taken at the end of April, and the administration bond followed in May. The appointment placed the formal responsibility for settling his affairs in her hands.

Her own will looked in two directions. Alongside the sons overseas, it named Thomas Kent of Upper Wallop, in Hampshire, her son-in-law, and his wife. The residue of Anne’s goods, household utensils and other property went to Robert Read of East Cholderton, across the county boundary in Hampshire, whom she appointed sole executor. The will records those choices without explaining why he received the larger share. Its closing formula preserves Anne’s mark and the names of two witnesses.

Anne was buried at Cholderton on March 7, 1657/58. The burial record gives her age as eighty-two. Her surviving papers offer a direct view of a long widowhood: first administering her husband’s modest estate, then arranging her own possessions while recognizing children living on opposite sides of the ocean.

She is commonly identified in the family reconstruction as Anne Parker, although competing surname pedigrees remain unresolved.