The family of Joseph Holbrook 1683-1750

Joseph Holbrook is in the fourth generation of Holbrooks in Massachusetts, which also included his father, Peter, his grandfather, Thomas Junior, and his great grandfather, Thomas Holbrook the immigrant.  I've written about him earlier, but basically said little about his family.  Joseph may have lived his entire life on the same property, although he was born in Mendon, Massachusetts and died in Bellingham, Massachusetts.  Bellingham broke off from Mendon and was formed as a town in 1721.  

Joseph married Mary Cook, the daughter of Nicholas and Joanna Rockwood Cook.  on December 10, 1710.  The birth date of their daughter Alice is shown on some sites as February 14, 1710 and on some as February 14, 1711.  Either way, it appears that she arrived "early".  

Alice married Samuel Hayward, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Warfield Hayward.  He was likely a descendant of Samuel and Mehitable Thompson Hayward, who are our ancestors through another line. Alice and Samuel had at least seven children together: Martha, Warfield, Jesse, Lucy, Ebenezer, Alice, and Abijah.  

Their next child was Joanna, who married Abijah French, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Belcher French. We have several Thomas French men in our lines, and some Elizabeth Belchers, too, but at this time I'm not able to say for sure whether these are our relatives or not.  Joanna and Abijah appear to have had several children, including two sons named Abijah (sometimes Habijah) who died young, plus Joanna, Lois, David, Samuel, Sarah, and Unice.  Several of these births are recorded in Milford rather than Mendon, but Mendon and Milford are located just a few miles apart.    

Joseph was their first born son.  He married Grace Thayer, daughter of Jonathan Jr and Bethia Chapin Thayer.  Grace was the great granddaughter of our ancestors Ferdinando and Hulda Hayward Thayer, and also of our ancestors on our paternal side, Samuel and Cicely Penny Chapin.  They had at least seven children together: Esther, Bethia, Phebe, Jonathan, Joseph, Seth, and Meletiah.  

Daughter Rachel married Jonathan Thayer, a sister to Grace who married Joseph Holbrook (above paragraph).  They had at least five children together: Asahel, Paul, Lucy, Jonathan, and a second Paul, as the first one died at the age of 12.  

Their second son, Asahel, married Anna Puffer, the daughter of Richard and Anna Hawes Puffer.  When I look at Anna's tree, I see several more of our ancestors-Hawes, Lombard, Newell, Curtis, and Eliot, and possibly more.  (These interconnections are really starting to blow my mind!) Asahel and Anna had at least 10 children: Nathan, Mary, Anna, Ezekiel, Abijah, Elijah, Anne, two Esthers, one of whom died as an infant or toddler, and Moses.  

Joseph and Mary's next son was David.  He married Mary Hayden, the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Hollis Hayden.  Mary Hayden was actually born in Braintree, so I thought maybe we would be getting new names into the family.  However, her ancestors include surnames of Pray, Valliance, and Thayer, all of which are also ancestors.  Joseph and Mary continued the Holbrook tradition of having many children.  Their even dozen included Mary, Hannah, Sarah, David, Lydia, Jonathan, James, Mehitable, Bethia, Ruth, Moses, and Caleb.    

Their daughter Mary married Daniel Corbett Jr, son of Daniel and Sarah Jones Corbett.  As far as I can tell, Daniel had no known ancestors who are also our ancestors.  Their children were: Nathaniel, Priscilla, Robert, Daniel, Peter, Joseph, Eldad, Mary who died young, Mary again, Hepzibah, Beulah, and John.  After 20 years of marriage, Daniel died, and Mary later married Josiah Chapin, who was the widower of Rachel Albee, of the same Albee family we descend from.  And yes, Josiah was a descendant of Samuel and Cicely Penny Chapin also.  Josiah had eleven children, so if there was a joint family get together, it would have been quite a large one.

Their final son was Jesse.  He married Abigail Thayer, the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Wheelock Thayer.  Jesse and Abigail are our ancestral grandparents.  Abigail goes back to Ferdinando Thayer at least twice, so here we go again.  I've written about Jesse earlier.  Their children were: Huldah, Amariah, Hannah, Jesse, Lucretia, Triphena, and Abigail.  

In addition, Joseph and Mary had two daughters named Martha.  One died at the age of five years and one at the age of seven.  

By my count, this makes at least 68 grandchildren for Joseph and Mary.  This isn't the largest of the Holbrook families, but nevertheless it's surprising to our generation.  I don't know if there were family reunions, but surely there were gatherings from time to time.  Almost all of these families lived in Bellingham or Milford, so the children would all have known their cousins.