William H. Larkham

William H. Larkham was born on May 31, 1820 in Voluntown, Connecticut. He was the son of Lot Larkham Jr. and Olive Gorton. William's mother died on May 25, 1834, just before his 14th birthday. William and his three siblings, John, age 16, Betsey, age 10, and Edwin, age 6, were still living at home at the time. One year later, William's father, Lot, remarried Sarah Ann Phillips of Coventry, Rhode Island.

On May 18, 1845, William married Hannah Emeline Palmer (in photo, left, with William), a daughter of Asher & Joanna Palmer of Exeter, Rhode Island and Griswold, Connecticut. It's very likely that the Larkham and Palmer families knew each other before William and Hannah's marriage. William and Hannah settled on a farm at the southeast of Beach Pond in Voluntown Connecticut that William's grandparents settled in the late 1700s. When William's father, Lot Larkham, died in 1847 William, age 27, was made executor of the estate along with his stepmother, Sally Ann Phillips Larkham. William inherited all of Lot Larkham's property.

William and Hannah left Voluntown ten years later, in 1857,and moved to Griswold, Connecticut, where William cultivated a rented farm. Hannah's parents Asher & Joanna Palmer, had owned a farm in Griswold. Perhaps William helped Hannah's mother, now widowed, with the maintenance of the Palmer farm. By 1860 the Larkhams had moved to North Stonington. In 1864, they moved to Canterbury, where William rented a farm in the Willoughby School District. William served as Selectman for the Town of Canterbury from 1873 to 1875 in addition to maintaining a farm.

William died of heart disease on January 29 1884 at the age of 63, and was buried in the Larkham family plot at Packerville Cemetery, Packerville Baptist Church in Plainfield, Connecticut.

William H. Larkham

of Voluntown, North Stonington and Canterbury, Connecticut