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Frank B. Russell genealogical collection
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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Hunn genealogy began with George Hunn (d.1640), a tanner in Boston, Massachusetts. His son, Nathaniel I (1626/7-1704), was a shoemaker who moved from Boston to Wethersfield, Connecticut. Nathaniel Hunn’s son of the same name (1650-1677) married Priscilla Kitchen (1647-1721) and they lived in Salem, Massachusetts. He served in a unit during King Philip’s War and was killed in the battle at Blackpoint. Priscilla was a Quaker of Salem, Massachusetts, whose family met with frequent persecution due to their outspoken religious beliefs. Her father was a merchant and constable (though he was eventually removed from office because of his faith) and her brother, Robert Kitchen, also made his living as a merchant. The Kitchen family had ties to the early administration of Harvard through Priscilla’s second husband, George Bowers, and her brother’s wife. Bowers was also a Quaker and moved Priscilla and her children by her first marriage to Kent County, Delaware. Priscilla’s third marriage to John Curtis produced one child, a daughter Ruth, who married her cousin, William Rodney, the uncle of Caeser Rodney. Caeser was one of Delaware’s delegates to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Many of Priscilla’s descendents became prominent in Delaware politics and business, and United States politics. Priscilla and Nathaniel’s son, Nathaniel Hunn III (1676-1718), married Mary Walker (1683-1707) whose grandfather was Thomas Heathered (1638-1695), a Delaware Quaker in whose home Priscilla and her daughter Sara were both wed. Nathaniel III and his wife had a daughter Mary (1706-1774), who married Waitman Sipple II (1702-1762).
The Sipple family genealogy begins with Garrett Sipple (d.ca. 1723) of Northampton County, Virginia, who later moved to Kent County, Delaware. Garrett Sipple eloped with Mary Calvert (b. ca. 1656), the daughter of Christopher Calvert (ca. 1610-ca.1682), an immigrant to Accomack County, Virginia. It is suggested though not confirmed that this Christopher Calvert may be the nephew of George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who established the colony of Maryland. Garrett and Mary’s son Waitman Sipple (1675-1772) was a wealthy landowner and member of the Duck Creek meeting. His son, Waitman Sipple, Jr., was married in the Duck Creek meeting to Mary Hunn, the daughter of Nathaniel Hunn III and Mary Walker.
O’Gorman, Ella Foy. Descendants of Virginia Calverts, 1947.“Priscilla Kitchen, Quakeress of Salem, Mass., And Kent County, Del., and Her Family.” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. CVI. Boston: New England Genealogical Society, 1952.Derived from the collection.
The Frank B. Russell Genealogical Collection contains 1 linear foot of documentation on the Hunn family of Massachusetts and Delaware, along with Sipple, Calvert, Kitchen, and Walker branches, dating back to the seventeenth-century colonial period. Ten looseleaf binders originally housed this collection of photocopies and mimeographs of primary and secondary sources. All of the material from the binders has been rehoused in folders with the order of the papers preserved. The collection came to the University of Delaware in 1991 as a gift of Frank B. Russell.
Russell collected copies of original documents such as land records and wills, and copies of court, probate, marriage and death records available from various historical societies. Excerpts from genealogical publications, state histories and county histories also appear. Most of the information has multiple copies spread throughout the collection. Each of the original binders also included variations on the applications to the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, featuring different ancestors. Handwritten notes by the compiler also appear.
Box 1: Shelved in SPEC MSS record center cartons
Gift of Frank B. Russell, 1991
Processed by Jennifer Vess, October 2006. Encoded by Jaime Margalotti, July 2017.
People
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Delaware Library Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
- Finding Aid Date
- 2017 July 19
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce isrequired from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec
Collection Inventory
Material from the first binder in the collection containing an article on Priscilla Kitchen and National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century applications featuring birth, death and marriage dates for members of the Hunn, Kitchen, Grafton, Moore, Walker, Heathered, Calvert and Sipple families.
Pertains mostly to George Hunn and Nathaniel Hunn I. The group of materials contains: published accounts of court records, births, marriages and deaths as well as county and state histories of Massachusetts.
Pertains mostly to Nathaniel Hunn I. The group of materials contains: articles on Priscilla Kitchen, a genealogy of Nathaniel Hunn, a Delaware history publication of New England marriages prior to 1700, and handwritten notes.
Pertains mostly to Nathaniel Hunn I and Nathaniel Hunn II. The group of materials contains: vital records of Salem, Essex court records, articles on Priscilla Kitchen, copies of land records, and a handwritten family tree.
Pertains mostly to Nathaniel Hunn III, and Priscilla Kitchen’s third and fourth husbands (Curtis and Gilbert) The group of materials contains: probate records for Essex County, Mass., and Kent County, Del., transcripts of Delaware court records, Delaware state and county histories, copies of land indentures, and handwritten notes.
The group of materials contains: biographical information on early members of the Sipple family, copies of wills and land records, published genealogy on the Calvert family, Virginia state and county histories, published probate records for Delaware, and handwritten notes.
The group of materials contains: lineage documents for the Colonial Dames application process, published information on the Calvert family, copies of wills and land records, Sipple family history, history of Delaware, Bible records of the DAR, and handwritten notes,
Information on George Bowers
Information on John Curtis
Massachusetts histories with information pertaining to John Kitchen
The group of materials contains: published records from Delaware, a genealogy from the Pennsylvania Historical Society, copies of land records, histories of Delaware, and handwritten notes.
Information pertaining to Joseph Grafton and Ann Moore including multiple copies of Colonial Dame XVII Century applications and county histories and historical collections of Massachusetts