Lieut. Josiah Richardson1

b. 18 May 1665, d. 17 October 1711
Lieut. Josiah Richardson|b. 18 May 1665\nd. 17 Oct 1711|p659.htm|Josiah Richardson|b. c 1634\nd. 22 Jul 1695|p805.htm|Remembrance Underwood|b. 27 Feb 1639/40\nd. 20 Feb 1718/19|p806.htm|Ezekiel Richardson|b. c 1604\nd. 21 Oct 1647|p746.htm|Susanna (—?—) (Richardson-Brooks)|d. 15 Sep 1681|p786.htm|William Underwood|b. c 1615\nd. 12 Aug 1697|p934.htm|Sarah (—?—) (Underwood)|d. 5 Nov 1684|p935.htm|

5th great-grandfather of Louise Underwood.
7th great-grandfather of Laura Jane Munson.
Family Background:
Underwood and Allied Families
Appears on charts:
Pedigree for Louise Underwood
     Josiah Richardson was born on 18 May 1665 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.1 He was the son of Josiah Richardson and Remembrance Underwood.2 He married Mercy Parish of Dunstable, daughter of Robert Parish and Mercy Crisp, on 14 December 1687 in Chelmsford.3,4,2 He died intestate on 17 October 1711 in Chelmsford at age 46.5 He was buried in Forefather's Burying Ground, Chelmsford Center.5 His widow, Mercy Richardson, was appointed to administer his estate on 21 November 1711, her bondsmen being Jonathan Richardson and and John Wright. The homestead was valued at £150 : 10 : 6, and there were several other parcels of land and meadow at Stoney Brook ) £50 : 10 : 0), at Wamesit Neck (£30), etc. His share in the sawmill and the land there was worth £26 : 11 : 0. The contents of his house were simple and the barns had a good stock of animals, horses, cattle and swine. The family orchard had been productive as "ten Barills of Cyder" testify. On 14 November 1712, Mercy Richardson presented her account, showing the value of the estate to have been £514 : 4 : 0, and payments of £78 : 2 : 7 which she had made were allowed. The bill of Dr. Roger Toothaker was £2 and that of Dr. Jonathan Prescot £5 : 5 : 0. Benjamin Fitch had supplied gloves for the funeral worth £2. Francis Foxcroft, the Judge of Probate, made a note on a separate sheet that "Mr Hildreth the Husbd of Mercy Hildreth p abt 20li before the father dyed for wh he has released his right in behalfe of his wife Mercy in the fathers estate both in lands & moveables & must be taken off this accot & must be left out upon the dividend of this estate, but the release must be lodged in this office first." Judge Foxcroft ordered the widow's dower of one-third of the estate set off on 17 November and directed that the other two-thirds be carefully valued as he had granted the request of the eldest son, Josiah Richardson, to which the widow and the guardians of the minor children had consented, that Josiah should buy the said two-thirds.
     
     On 2 February 1685, Josiah's father was on a committee to treat with the Indians and the General Court "about Wamasecke Neck of land in way of purchasing the same." The committee was successful, and both father and son were among the grantees.6

     He was in the county militia and given the title of lieutenant when he was elected selectman of Chelmsford in 1692, thus differentiating him from his father who was still active in town affairs. He was elected again in 1695.2 On 12 March 1696, the widow and children of Josiah Richardson, who died intestate 22 July 1695, entered an agreement for the division of the estate by which "The four sons of said Captain Richardson, namely Josiah, Jonathan, John and Samuell," divided the upland and meadows.

     For his service in Queen Anne's War in 1702, he was one of the grantees from the General Court of lands in Tyngstown, then in Massachusetts, and now the city of Manchester, New Hampshire. After the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was resolved in 1741 in favor of New Hampshire, the General Court substituted the township of Wilton, now in Maine, for the lands granted in Tyngstown.2 Josiah entered a bond for £500, with his brother-in-law Ephraim Hildreth as his surety on 16 July 1718, to pay "the several sums ordered" to his brothers Robert, Zachariah and William Richardson, and his sisters Mercy Hildreth, the wife of Ephraim Hildreth, and Hannah Richardson.7

Children of Lieut. Josiah Richardson and Mercy Parish

Citations

  1. [S111] Essex Institute, Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 (Salem: Newcomb & Gauss, Printers, 1914), 134.
  2. [S165] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Richardson, of Chelmsford," Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), Vol. III, 3: 226, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Hildreth (1958).
  3. [S166] John Adams Vinton, The Richardson Memorial, Comprising a Full History and Genealogy of the Posterity of the Three Brothers, Ezekiel, Samuel, and Thomas Richardson, Who Came from England, and United with Others in the Foundation of Woburn, Massachusetts, in the Year 1641, of John Richardson, of Medfield, 1679, of Amos Richardson, of Boston, 1640, of Edward and William Richardson, of Newbury, 1643, with Notices of Richardsons in England and Elsewhere (Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston & Co., 1876), 48.
  4. [S168] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Parish, of Groton," Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), Vol. III, 3: 82, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Hildreth (1958).
  5. [S111] Chelmsford VR (published), 434.
  6. [S165] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Richardson, of Chelmsford," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 3: 223, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Hildreth (1958).
  7. [S165] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Richardson, of Chelmsford," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 3: 226, 227, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Hildreth (1958).
  8. [S165] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Richardson, of Chelmsford," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 3: 227, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Hildreth (1958).
  9. [S111] Chelmsford VR (published), 132.
  10. [S111] Chelmsford VR (published), 131.
  11. [S111] Chelmsford VR (published), 133.