Holbrook line: Joseph Stevens 1679-1757

I hesitate to write this blog post, because I'm finding information that is different than mine.  It looks like two of even three men by the name of Joseph Stevens have been combined in some of the information that is out on the web.  I hope I have untangled our Joseph Stevens from the others, and if I haven't, I hope someone who has the documentation will correct me. 

Our Joseph Stevens was the son of John and Elizabeth Hildreth Stevens. His grandfather, Henry, was the Stevens immigrant, and father John was born in Boston in 1637.  Joseph, however, was born in Chelmsford, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony on March 24, 1679,  This was just after King Philip's War, and Chelmsford had apparently not been seriously attacked during that conflict, although the town did suffer raids from native Americans.  Joseph may have been the youngest of the eight Stevens children, so some of his older siblings likely told him stories as he grew up.  I can imagine the youngster's eyes growing round as they told stories that may have become slightly embellished with time.

This might be a good time to comment on a reference I saw that Joseph is believed to have been one.eighth native American.  I would say that this is possible only because I don't know all of Joseph's great grandparents.  They would have been born around the turn of the seventeenth century, or earlier, and would have had to have lived in the colony.  So far I've no evidence that there was anyone here that early.  I would love to know the truth of that rumor.

I don't know whether Joseph ever lived in Woburn, but it's possible because he married Elizabeth Tidd, daughter of John and Elizabeth Fifield Tidd there in 1701.  We next find Joseph in Billerica, where he married his second wife, Elizabeth Sherman in 1713 in BIllerica.  Elizabeth Tidd had died shortly before that, of unknown causes. 

Joseph had four children with Elizabeth Tidd and then perhaps as many as eight children with Elizabeth Sherman.  It would have been quite a household.  Joseph was well-regarded in Billerica and took responsibility to help form the town of Chelmsford.  It was formally incorporated in 1732, but settlers were probably there earlier.  He had the right to call the first town meeting, as the proprietor of the town, but he didn't do that.  He was, however, moderator of the first town meetings and was chosen as selectman several times.  He also seems to have been active in getting the first church started, after signing the covenant in 1734. 

Then it is hard to tell what happened to Joseph.  He died October 1, 1756 in Townsend, still in Essex County.  I haven't yet been able to trace when he moved there, or why, but his probate papers clearly state that he is of Townsend.  (Note: I found a will attached to him on Ancestry trees but it doesn't appear to be correct.  The children named don't belong to our Joseph, for one thing. I found what I believe is the correct probate file at American Ancestry.)  Joseph died without a will and with a very small estate, burdened with debts.  Perhaps in his old age taking "loans" from friends was a way to sustain himself.  But he was rich in treasure laid up in heaven, because this is what his headstone says:

"Halt stranger as you go past
Remember time doth runeth fast
My dust in narou bounds do lye
Remember man that thou must dye
This dust revive it shalt again
And in a grave no more remain
When trumpet sounds I shall arise
And celebrat my God his praise"

(Transcribed by Kevin Avery on Find a Grave.)  I've not seen this verse before and it speaks to me.  Joseph was a man of his times, a not so stern Puritan as he looked forward to his resurrection.

So we know a little about Joseph, but not enough to really satisfy me.  Why did he move so many times?  Did he have a trade that was valued at each of his homes?  Why did he fall on hard times?  Did he participate in any of the military missions of his times?  There is always more to learn!

The line of descent is

Joseph Stevens-Elizabeth Tidd
Elizabeth Stevens-William Snow
Lucy Snow-Josiah Whittemore
Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster
Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants