Holbrook line: Joseph Stannard 1635-ish-1688

 It's a good thing family historians like mysteries and unanswered questions, because we sure have a lot of them.  Joseph Stannard is a case in point.  We know his parents were John and Margaret Miller Stannard (Stonard and other spellings), who were married in London, England in 1631.  We know he was one of at least four children, but there don't seem to be existing birth records for him.  Many trees say he was born in Hartford (or Haddam, or Saybrook), Connecticut, but his parents to the best of our knowledge were never there, so that is erroneous.  He was almost certainly born somewhere in England, because his parents didn't come to New England until later.  John Stannard is not listed in Robert Charles Anderson's The Great Migration Directory, but he is shown to have had land in Roxdbury, Massachusetts by 1639 so John, at least, had arrived by then.  It's possible that he went back to England to gather his wife and children, or possible that Margaret and children arrived on their own, but one way or another, the family was here by 1642.  

John died in Roxbury in 1649, which probably left Joseph adrift at the age of 14.  He would probably have been apprenticed, if he was lucky, or simply became a servant in another family in order to keep eating.  His mother married Thomas Waterman about a year after John's death, so Joseph became part of a blended family, if he was still living at home.

The next we hear of Joseph is his listing as an early founder of Haddam, Connecticut, in about 1668.  About the same time, he married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Gerard and Hannah Hills Spencer, who were also of Haddam.  Haddam was founded by people from Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor, but I've not located Joseph in any of those locations.  Joseph had a four acre lot on the west side of the Connecticut River, not far from the lots of John Spencer and Gerard Spencer.  So there was family in that same small settlement.

Joseph and Elizabeth had at least five, and possibly six children.  There are two dates given for the birth of William Stannard, and it's possible that the first William died very young and a later son was given his name.  (This was a common practice at the time, and William was the name of Elizabeth's maternal grandfather.)  A meeting house was built in 1673 and Joseph and Elizabeth would have attended church services there.  

At some point, the Stannards moved to Saybrook, Connecticut, which was more or less on the coast,  and Joseph died there on August 20, 1688, at what was known as "Oyster Quarter".  He left a will but it was declared invalid.  Perhaps it didn't have the proper signatures, or perhaps it was an oral will with not enough witnesses, or there may have been some other legal defect.  At any rate, an inventory was taken.  In the estate settlement, which is disputed by Joseph's son-in-law, the sons try to make a fair division of property.  The inventory, which may have been reconstructed in 1699 from the original 1688 inventory, showed only about 48 pounds of goods, including land that sons Joseph and Samuel had been given.  We have no cause of death for Joseph, but because his will was apparently done hurriedly, it may have been a sudden illness or

The inventory has just enough detail for us to think that Joseph was probably a small time farmer, with several animals and a few acres of land.  He did have a gun at the time of his death, and a few household goods.  His wife Elizabeth is not mentioned in the settlement, so she had probably died prior to Joseph's death.  The daughter Elizabeth would have been just 11 years old when her father died, but was married by the time the settlement was reached in 1699.

I'm left wondering whether Joseph was involved in King Philip's War.  Many men in Connecticut went north to protect Massachusetts towns along the Connecticut River, and some went east and were involved in the Great Swamp Fight.  I've not found Joseph's name listed anywhere, so perhaps his involvement was slight.  He may have been standing guard at home.  I'd sure like to learn that part of his story, as well as why he left Haddam for Saybrook.

The line of descent is:

Joseph Stannard-Elizabeth Spencer

Joseph Stannard-Hannah Brackett

John Stannard-Hannah Jordan

John Stannard-Hannah Hatchett

Libbeus Stannard-Eunice Pomeroy

Libbeus Stannard-Luceba Fay

Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants