Joseph Lockwood

M, b. 6 August 1638, d. 14 April 1717
     Joseph was born on Friday, 6 August 1638 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.1 He was the son of Robert Lockwood and Susannah Norman. Joseph married Isabell Beacham, daughter of Robert Beacham, circa 1662 in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.2 Joseph and Isabell had children: Robert [on or before 11/24/1667], Susannah [on or before 11/24/1670], John [after 11/24/1667] and Sarah [after 11/24/1670]. Joseph as well as Robert Beacham were admitted as freemen on 13 October 1664 at Fairfield.3 On 8 October 1674, the court ruled that the farm in Maxemus, Westchester County, New York should stay in the hands of Joseph Lockwood, heir of Robert Lockwood.4 Joseph departed this life on Wednesday, 14 April 1717 in Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, at age 78 years, 8 months and 8 days.5

Important Notes: Hannah Jessop was not 18 years old in her father's will of 1666. Robert Beacham mentions in his will his son-in-law, Joseph Lockwood, and his Lockwood grandchildren: Robert and Susannah being of legal age; John and Sarah not of legal age. His grandson, Robert, would have been born on or before 11/24/1667. Joseph Lockwood became a freeman in Fairfield in 1664. This seems to indicate that Joseph had married Isabel Beacham by this time, and son, Robert, would have been born shortly after that, if the parents had not lost any children before his birth. Hannah was not of age, that is not 18 nor married, when her father wrote his will in 1666. Elizabeth, mother of Hannah and Edward Jessop, now wife of Robert Beacham, writes in a letter to her son-in-law, Thomas Hunt Jr. - "Elizabeth BEACHAM sent her son, Edward JESSUP, not yet of age, to visit his brother-in-law, Thomas HUNT, bearing a letter and power of attorney, dated March 27, 1682: Loving Son, Thomas HUNT; After my love remembered unto you and yours, hopeing that you are in good health, as wee are at this tyme, blessed be the Lord for it. These are to certify you that I doe give my son Edward full power to receive and dispose of any estate that belongs unto him. Alsoe I doe earnestly desire you to be helpful unto him in the cause. Also I doe give my son Edward order to take up and dispose of any of my daughter Hannah's Jades, for I have order from my son Joseph and his wife both." All this is stating Hannah is now married to a man with a given name of Joseph. There is no prove that Hannah is married to Joseph Lockwood, although it is possible.6,7,8

Citations

  1. [S2067] Massachusettw, U. S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988: Watertown Births Marriages Deaths - page 6.
  2. [S2115] North American Family Histories: page 13 - Joseph Lockwood, son of Robert and Susanna Lockwood, married Miss Beacham only daughter of Robert Beacham.
  3. [S2107] Henry Griswold Jesup, Edward Jessup of West Farms, Westchester Co., New York and his descendants, page 68.
  4. [S2115] North American Family Histories: page 13 - October 8th, 1674. “The petition of Major Nathan Gold and others being duly considered this Court sees good reason to approve of what the County Court of Fairfield have done, in settling and passing over Henry Greye’s farm at Maxemus to Joseph Lockwood the heir of Robert Lockwood, it being the most prudent course in present view to reserve any estate for the children of the sayd Grey, etc etc and hereby impower the administrators of the sayd Grey, etc. etc. to pass over the said farm at Maxemus to the sayd Joseph Lockwood the heir of Robert Lockwood , and their said deed being made rot the holding of the sayd farm to the sayd Lockwood, his heirs and assigns forever.
  5. [S2116] Connecticut, Town Death Records, pre-1870: Fairfield Vital Records - page 83.
  6. [S80] Donald Lines Jacobus, History and Genealogy of The Families of Old Fairfield, Volume 1 page 45 - The Jessop Genealogy suggests that Joseph Lockwood’s wife may have been Hannah Jessop, stepdau. Of Robert Beacham. Despite the fact that his will calls the Lockwood children his gr. Children, that is possible; but in the want of definite proof, we follow the more generally accepted view. – Child [by first wife]; Daughter, m. Joseph Lockwood.
  7. [S2107] Henry Griswold Jesup, Edward Jessup of West Farms, Westchester Co., New York and his descendants, page 70 - Elizabeth BEACHAM sent her son, Edward JESSUP, not yet of age, to visit his brother-in-law, Thomas HUNT, bearing a letter and power of attorney, dated March 27, 1682:
    "Loving Son, Thomas HUNT; After my love remembered unto you and yours, hopeing that you are in good health, as wee are at this tyme, blessed be the Lord for it. These are to certify you that I doe give my son Edward full power to receive and dispose of any estate that belongs unto him. Alsoe I doe earnestly desire you to be helpful unto him in the cause. Also I doe give my son Edward order to take up and dispose of any of my daughter Hannah's Jades, for I have order from my son Joseph and his wife both. I rest. Your loving mother, Elizabeth BEACHAM."
    Westchester Town Records, v.1,p.97,103; Jesup, Rev. Henry Griswold, EDWARD JESSUP of WEST FARMS, WESTCHESTER CO., NEW YORK (1887).
  8. [S506] Note: Wikitree - John Lockwood, son of Joseph and ___ (Beacham) Lockwood of Fairfield was in his minority when, in 1688, his grandfather, Robert Beacham of Fairfield, executed his last will, leaving to his grandson John Lockwood "threescore pounds" when he came of age. Two of John's siblings were in their majority at this time, and John and his sister Sarah were in their minority. All were children of Robert Beacham's unknown daughter, so we have no reason to expect there were large age gaps between these siblings. Perhaps, then, John and Sarah came of age around a few years after 1688. If we posit that John reached majority around 1691, then we could estimate his birth as around 1670. John Lockwood of the Town and County of Fairfield executed his last will on 5 April 1735, , making bequests: to wife Elizabeth her full dowry in my real and personal estate during her natural life, according to law - to three sons: Joseph, John and Ephraim, two third of remaining estate, what I have already given to Joseph and John to be counted in their portion - to five daughters Sarah Brown, Anna Bagley, Grace Williams, Elisabeth Matthews, Susannah Lockwood, one third of the remaining estate. - - - daughter Sarah Brown of Norwalk "shall not have the use of her part thereof while she is the wife of her present husband, Isaac Brown, nor power to alienate or sell the same, & if she shall decease before her sd. present husband, then the fifth part of ye sd. third part given to my sd. daughters," shall be to her heirs & assigns for ever, two thirds thereof to the male heirs and one third to the female heirs - son Ephraim not to act until he is 21. - - - Dan'l Chapman gave his oath as witness on 30 November 1736, and Gershom Lockwood & Margaret Battison, the same on 4 January 1736/7. - - - Gerhsom Bulkley and Moses Ward reported inventory on 26 March 1737, and Joseph and John Lockwood, executors, swore to it. His inventory included an enslaved boy named Tom. - - - A distribution of the real estate was made in 1739, the records of which detail lands in the the commonage, the "City of Troi/Troy or Grand Meadow", at Saugatuck River, meadow at Pine Hills, Applegate's Long Lot, Benjamin's Hill, Salt Meadow, a field next to Morehouse, a field joining Robert Lockwood's.