Dea. Joshua Fletcher
Joshua Fletcher was born at Chelmsford, Massachusetts, on 4 January 1677/8. He was the eldest son of Joshua Fletcher and Grisell Jewell, and a grandson of Ensign William Fletcher, one of the founders of Chelmsford. His mother died when he was four.
About 1700 he married Dorothy, who was born about 1679. The Fletcher genealogy of 1881 calls her Dorothy Hale and says she was born in Scotland. Their children were born at Chelmsford between 1701 and 1720. Joshua was born in 1701 and died in 1727 at twenty-six. A Sarah born in 1704 lived three months. Elizabeth, Hannah, Esther, Ephraim, Gershom and Zachariah followed. Dorothy was born on 17 March 1715/16, a second Sarah in 1719 and Eunice in 1720.
He lived in the western part of Chelmsford. In 1729 that part was set off as the new town of Westford, and he was its first town clerk. "He lived in a part of Chelmsford which was, in 1729, set off to form the town of Westford, of which he was the first town-clerk." The town clerk kept the town's records, including its births, marriages and deaths. He was also a deacon of the church.
He died at Westford on 19 October 1732, in his fifty-fifth year by his gravestone. The Westford register enters him as "Josheue", with "Dea." in its duplicate. His widow lived thirty-eight more years. "Their gravestones may be seen in the west cemetery in Westford," the genealogy says.
Three of his daughters married after his death. Elizabeth married Benjamin Blodgett of Chelmsford in February 1733. Dorothy married Aaron Parker junior in 1738, and Sarah married Aaron's brother Samuel Parker in 1739.
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Cite: Heirology, "Dea. Joshua Fletcher (1677-1732)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/dea-joshua-fletcher-1677-1732-ce90db.