On Morning Star Road
(Author's note: Sometimes it's the place that tells the story)
Sometimes in genealogy, it isn't so much the person that captures you. It's the place. Recently, this happened to me as I attempted to "push back" the lines of husband and wife team Ephraim Parker (1824-1902) and Martha Palmer (1833-1902). I'd had (and do have) the best of intentions in finding a "Connecticut Yankee" among this Parker/Palmer clan of my friend and client, Paige Dunham. Instead, however, these intentions and the research that accompanied them took me on a wild ride through the property lines of a place called Northfield, in a County called Richmond, and in a place better known to "we Western folks" as Staten Island. And yes, all of this and introduced me to a guy who appears anecdotally in Paige's ancestry, and by my best guess is her 6th-great-grandfather.
And a guy simply known of as:
"The Sheriff."
You see, I've been hoping to connect Martha (Palmer) Parker of Staten Island to Great Migration immigrant Walter Palmer of Stonington, Connecticut, (think 1630s). Old Walt is a Palmer ancestor of myself and also of my cousin genealogcially inclined Cousin Dan about five times over. Truth be told, though, I got a little sidetracked in looking at Martha's husband Ephraim's Parker lines...and well, that led me to get a bit "stranded on Staten Island."
It was as I was looking through the somewhat "difficult to discern" Parkers and Palmers of said fantasy island that I found my way to "the place they once lived," and an area associated with the family of "The Sheriff" and a place they still call Morning Star Road.
However, before there was just simply a property called or along any place called on "Morning Star Road," and before there were Parkers and Palmers living there in the 1850s, there was a great homestead and large tracts of land that belonged to the Taylor family. Now as genealogical rumor has it, Ephraim Parker's mother was a lady named Catherine Taylor. Catherine Taylor's mother was a lady named Sarah Hillyer.
Or so they say...Hmmm.? This ancestry is a wee bit murky and come out of a place that calls streams and creekbed marshes "kills."
I mean, WTF?
Anyway, this Taylor land that somehow Ephraim Parker's father John Parker acquired by marrying a girl from the better side of the "kill" (lol) in turn, was part of the vast Hillyer holdings in Northfield, Richmond County, Staten Island, New York. The patriarch of this land appears to be a guy by the name of John Hillyer. It was Paige's ancestor, this same "Grandpa John" who was commissioned as the High Sheriff of Richmond County in October 1761.
Hence, "The Sheriff"
And, by all accounts he was a remarkable man.
According to Ira K. Morris’s History of Staten Island, Hillyer was a man of "approved integrity" who became a legend for his moral defiance. (LOL, right??) During a time of oppressive "King’s debts" warrants, Sheriff Hillyer famously stood his ground, refusing to arrest his neighbors. He is recorded as stating:
"I will not turn the county jail into a nursery for the King's debts."
By refusing the warrants, he risked his own commission to protect the households of Richmond County. This legacy of integrity is written into the very dirt of the property Paige's family would hold for the next century.
However, connecting the dots between the Parkers, the Taylors, and the Hillyers of Richmond County, Staten, Island, New York has required more than just names; it has required geographical triangulation. In an 1858 Indenture, the boundary of the Parker lot is implied as running along the boundary of what was once Taylor land. And thanks to Sarah's mother Hester Hillyer’s and her 1791 Will, we know that Sarah Taylor was actually Sarah Hillyer, daughter of the Sheriff.
I think I got all that. Makes my head hurt too. Lol.
In the meantime...
By mapping the Parker lot against the ancient boundaries of some folks called the Mersereaus and Housmans and their "patents—the Sheriff's original neighbors—a clear picture emerged. The Parker homestead sat directly on the "Taylor Line"—the legal partition of the old Hillyer farm. The Parker deeds describe the land as being on the "East side of the highway leading from the North Shore to the Morning Star." This wasn't just a neighborhood; it was the physical footprint of the Hillyer estate, preserved through the generations.
At least if I have it straight anyway. I'm still learning "deed-talk" and "1874."
In my defense, I am a bit blue in the face today from looking at old maps - and from raking a skadillion fallen leaves in my yard too while I think about Ephraim and Martha and how it all connects.
Anway, here goes:
The Marriage of Land and Lineage
The transition from the Hillyer/Taylor bloodline to the Parker name is the heart of this story. This land was handed down through three pivotal generations of women:
The Source: Hester Hillyer, widow of the Sheriff, passed the estate to her daughters in 1791.
The Bridge: Her daughter, Sarah Hillyer, married Oliver Taylor. Their presumed daughter, Catherine Taylor (1792–c. 1875), was the living link to this land.
The Union: Catherine Taylor married John Parker (Senior). Under the laws of the time, John became the legal steward of Catherine’s inherited Taylor/Hillyer land. The John Parker Theory: Staten Island Bible records show that John Parker (1789–1860) married Catharine Taylor in 1821.
When John Parker signed the 1858 deed for an "Estate of Inheritance," he was legally passing on the Hillyer bloodright that Catherine had brought into their marriage to their son, Ephraim Parker. Ephraim, in turn, married Martha Palmer, and together they maintained this ancestral homestead on Morning Star Road.
Below are the players in "Scene I Act III" of this VERY Provisional Family Pedigree:
John Hillyer (c. 1716–1775): High Sheriff of Richmond County. (possibly Paige’s 6th-G-Grandfather)
Hester Hillyer (d. 1791): Widow of the Sheriff.
Sarah Hillyer (1754–1835): Daughter of the Sheriff; Married Oliver Taylor (d. 1791).
Catherine Taylor (1792–c. 1875): The bridge of the "Inheritance"; married John Parker.
Ephraim Parker (1824–1902): Received the Morning Star Road lot in 1858; Married Martha Palmer.
Mary Catherine Parker (1853–1922): Married George Augustus Page.
Roy Allan Page (1878–1957): Married Mayme Sue Willeford.
Roy Allen Page Jr. (1914–1969): Married Edith Virginia Haley.
Margaret Deborah Page (1948–2024): Married David Thomas Brown.
Allison Paige Brown (1968–Living): Known to us as Paige Dunham.
Conclusion:
The 114 feet of land Ephraim Parker and Martha Palmer called home in 1858 was the exact same soil the High Sheriff defended a century prior. It is a sanctuary preserved by a family that believed the law should serve the household, not the other way around. On Morningstar Road, the character of the Sheriff still lingers in the property lines he refused to let the King's debt-collectors cross.
I just thought having a guy like "The Sheriff" in one's colonial family tree - and one especially out of Revolutionary War Staten Island was a cool thing to share.
I gotta say though - there are rumors that despite all that he may have also been loyal to the Mad King. Indeed, there is a curious note about his son-in-law, Oliver Taylor, (a man who would also be an ancestor of Paige's saying as much in the DAR patriot files. WTF?! :) ~ Staten Island was a British stronghold during the Revolution. It was very common for families to have one foot in both worlds. ( i.e., that a Loyalist father-in-law and a Patriot son-in-law living on the same land would make for a very tense Thanksgiving dinner)
See below:
We will see where the journey takes us next.
Hey, you Palmers, are you out there? Martha? Anyone?
(Wink!)
P.S: As a foot note to all of this - that is the possibility of any shared connection between Great Migration Immigrant Ancestor Walter Palmer to Paige's ancestor Martha (Palmer) Parker and again with me and cousin Dan Wells - there is a very curious thing. There is a man who is alleged to have migrated from Stonington, Connecticut to New York by the nameof Saxton Palmer - a descendant of that same Walter Palmer's.
Sources & Bibliography
Hillyer, Hester. Last Will and Testament of Hester Hillyer, Widow of John Hillyer. Richmond County Surrogate’s Office, NY. Liber A of Wills, p. 48. (1791).
Parker, John [Senr] to Ephraim Parker. Indenture for Estate of Inheritance. Richmond County Clerk’s Office, NY. Liber 44 of Deeds, p. 524. (1858).
Morris, Ira K. Morris's Memorial History of Staten Island, New York. Vol. I, pp. 215-217. (1898).
Beer’s Atlas of Staten Island (1874). Sectional Map of Northfield showing the proximity of Parker, Housman, and Mersereau holdings.
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