Joshua Fletcher

1643-1713 · Concord MA

Born 1643, Concord, Massachusetts

Died 1713

Father: Ens. William Fletcher

Mother: Rachel Fletcher

Children include Dea.

Joshua Fletcher was born at Concord, Massachusetts, on 10 March 1643/4, a son of William Fletcher and his first wife, Rachel. The Concord register enters him as "Joshua sonne of William and Rachell ffletcher the 10th of the (1) mo". His mother died before he was two. On 7 November 1645 his father married Lydia, the widow of Edward Bates of Boston, and she raised him. She brought a son of her own, John Bates, born in 1642.

In 1653 the family moved to the new town of Chelmsford on the Merrimack. Joshua was baptised there on 1 February 1656/7, "a. abt. 12 y.", on the same day as his father's younger children and his stepbrother John Bates.

His half-sister Lydia married the Rev. John Fiske, the first minister of Chelmsford. In 1667 or 1668 Grisell Jewell was the maid servant in the minister's house. She was Joshua's first cousin, a daughter of his father's sister Grissell, who had come to Chelmsford in 1667 with her fifth husband.

What happened next is in the court files of Middlesex County. On 10 March 1667/8 Mr. Fiske took out a writ against Joshua "for Breaking into his House and accompanying with his mayd servant." On 18 March the files record "Joshua Fletcher's confession of crime with Grissell Juel in Mr. Fiske's house." The court at Cambridge fined him twenty pounds in April. His father William was bound for the payment.

The marriage followed in May. The Chelmsford register enters it: "Joshuah, s. William, and Grisill Jewell, May 4, 1668." That December Joshua and Grisell petitioned the court for leniency, with the names of Chelmsford and Concord men on the petition. In June 1669 his blind grandfather, Robert Fletcher, petitioned for him too.

They had at least three sons. The eldest known was Joshua, born on 4 January 1677/8. A son born on 23 October 1679 has a name the page has lost, and William died in March 1681/2. Grisell died on 17 March 1681/2.

On 18 July 1682 he married again, to Sarah Willy. They had nine children, Paul, Rachel, Timothy, John, Joseph, Sarah, Jonathan, Elizabeth and Jonas.

He died at Chelmsford on 21 November 1713. His son Joshua by his first marriage became deacon and first town clerk of Westford.

Parents

Ens. William Fletcher 1622-1677

Rachel Fletcher

Children

Dea. Joshua Fletcher 1677-1732

Sources

Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1914), archive.org vitalrecordsofch00chel, marriages, p. 228

Petition of Robert Fletcher, 15 June 1669, Middlesex Court Files, transcribed in Winifred Lovering Holman, Robert Fletcher of Concord, Massachusetts Bay, 1627 (typescript, 1930), p. 9; archive.org robertfletcherof00holm

Winifred Lovering Holman, Robert Fletcher of Concord, Massachusetts Bay, 1627 (typescript, 1930), p. 50; archive.org robertfletcherof00holm

Concord, Massachusetts, Births, Marriages, and Deaths 1635-1850 (printed from the Middlesex County register), p. 6; archive.org concordmassachus00conc

Concord, Massachusetts, Births, Marriages, and Deaths 1635-1850, p. 6, archive.org concordmassachus00conc; Winifred Lovering Holman, Robert Fletcher of Concord, Massachusetts Bay, 1627 (typescript, 1930), pp. 9-10, 38, 42, 50, archive.org robertfletcherof00holm; Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1914), archive.org vitalrecordsofch00chel, marriages p. 228 and deaths; Edward H. Fletcher, The Descendants of Robert Fletcher of Concord, Mass. (Boston, 1881), archive.org fletcherfamilyhi00flet, p. 29

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Cite: Heirology, "Joshua Fletcher (1643-1713)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joshua-fletcher-1643-1713-1ff5de.