Settling In

The families first settled in Watertown, near Boston.
They had to live in hovels built by the earliest settlers
Who had since moved up to more spacious quarters.
So they kept looking for suitable land for permanent homes.

Richard and his companions were soon engaged in building houses.
Both Richard and his son, Richard, were wheelwrights
Which meant that they knew something of carpentry
And the use of simple mathematics in construction.

They are said to have built, or helped to build
Two elegant homes that are still standing:
The house at Cogwell's Grant in Essex, and
The Whipple House in Ipswich.

Both belie the notion that Puritan tastes were primitive.
Perhaps it was their work on the latter that led to an
Invitation to practice their wheelwright trade in the town of Ipswich,
And the grant of two home sites in town, plus a forty acre farm nearby.

Richard spent the rest of his life in Ipswich,
Practicing his trade and participating in town business.
After Ursula died, he married Margaret Dow.
In his will, and other records, he signed his name, "Richard Kimball."

This is odd, because that spelling of the name does not appear
In England, nor was it used by Henry or anyone else in the colonies.
Records of the ancestral line starts with one Thomas Kembold
Who was born in 1396 and lived in Hitcham, Suffolk.

The name literally means: "The bold Welshman,"
Being a combination of "bold" and "Cym" for Wales.
Perhaps the first Kembold did some noble deed in battle,
Resulting in a coat of arms, now generally regarded as spurious.

Richard's brother, Henry, preferred Kemball.
His slender line gradually changed it to Kimbell.
That name may also have been changed from Kimball
By Southerners during the Civil War, to emphasize their secession.

There is no doubt, however, that anyone with the name "Kimball"
Is directly descended from Richard the Emigrant.
Therefore we are all cousins of a sort
Greeting each other as such whenever we meet.