Exhibit

Excerpts from The Jocelyn - Joslin - Joslyn - Josselyn Family, compiled by Edith S. Wessler. Produced by the Charles E. Tuttle Company of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan. Copyright in Japan, 1961. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 61-11559. First edition, 1962. (Consulted by H. DeVoe on Feb. 4, 1987, at the Library of Congress genealogy room, call number CS71.J66 1962.)


PREFACE to the book:

A daughter's desire to know who her earlier ancestors were induced the compiler of this work in the early part of 1943 to commence a search, and she has continued it with intermissions ever since. Scores of books had more or less to say about the name in America, all of which were scanned and their pertinent facts copied. ...Other information regarding this ancient Family has been mainly obtained from descendants of the Family, and Town Clerks, mentioned in Acknowledgments . . .


Part I of the book is about the ancient history of the name, coats of armour, etc.


Excerpts from Part II of the book (restructured in places to put one son in each paragraph):

During the Middle Ages most European countries observed the new year on March 25th, Annunciation Day, in the Julian calendar, leaving January and February and the first 24 days of March, in the previous year. For example: 1670/71, indicates a date previous to March 25, 1671, but after December 31, 1670. In this work are used the dates our grand ancestors and forerunners wrote.

. . . Our primal ancestor seems to be Lambert I, or Josceline d'Albro (or Atho?). He was one of Louis d'Outremer's chief officers in the battle against the Danes in 945, and was Count of Brabant.

Count Josceline, or Lambert II, son of Josceline d'Albro, was living in the beautiful old Chateau de Josceline, Brabant [Brittany], in 980. He succeeded his father as Count of Brabant, in 1005, inheriting the castle and all its domains. Another annalist states that he was Count of Chalons. Count Josceline m. Gerberga, 3rd child of Charles, Duke of Lorraine, and Bonne, his first wife. Count Josceline d. in the Battle of Florimel, 1015. Gerberga d. in 1025.

Gilbert [2nd child of Count Josceline and Gerberga], b. in the Chateau de Josceline, ca 1005; became acquainted with Edward of England, who had spent twenty-five of his thirty years in Normandy. They were distantly connected through marriage. When Edward was recalled to the English throne in 1042, after the period of Danish supremacy, he was accompanied by Norman relatives, nobles, churchmen, etc. Gilbert was on the list of those who accompanied him. He is recorded as having settled in Sempringham, county Lincoln. His wife's name is not given. They had son: -

Gilbert, (Latin spelling, Galfridus) b. in England; sent back to Normandy to acquire an education. In 1066, he re-entered England with William, Duke of Normandy. He followed the duke through all his campaigns, but when English estates were captured, taken from the natives and offered to Gilbert as his reward, he refused to share in the unrighteous gains, and went back to the land of his fathers which he could hold with good conscience. ...Later in life, Gilbert returned to England to receive the vast landed possessions inherited from his father in Lincolnshire and adjoining counties. He married a Saxon lady, the daughter of a Thane.

Gilbert had at least two sons: Gilbert, born 1083; Geoffrey, born 1085. Gilbert, born in 1083, was educated in Normandy, founded a monastery and established the Order of Gilbertine monks, in 1146. He first established a convent of seven nuns, besides lay sisters, and prescribed for them the Benedictine rule. He intended to place them under the direction of the Cistercians, but when this did not seem practicable he founded the congregation of priests and lay brothers to have the care of the nuns, while dwelling in a separate cloister. To these he gave the rule of St. Augustine modified by Cistercian. The foundation was confirmed by Eugenius III, in 1148. At Bishop Josceline's death in 1189, it had thirteen cloisters, of which nine were double. This order continued to flourish until the dissolution of the monasteries. The Bishop died, after an illness of five years, (during which a Bishop John was acting), on February 4, 1189, at the age of 109 years. He was buried in the Abbey Church at Semperingham, between the altars of St. Mary and St. Andrew. On February 4, 1202, he was canonized by Pope Innocent II [sic; probably III]. His feast day was celebrated February 11th.

Geoffrey, son of Gilbert and the Saxon lady, was born in England in 1085. When his older brother became a monk, he succeeded to the title and larger portion of his father's vast estates. He married in 1106, a daughter of John de Bissel, of Lincolnshire. They had son: -

William, born in 1107; married Oswalda, daughter of Sir Robert Goushold, knight. They had son:

Robert, born in 1129; married a daughter of John Fleming. They had son -

James, of county Essex; born in 1150; married Johanna Threckenholm.

Henry [first child of James], born 1174; married, 1198, a wealthy lady, Jane, daughter and heiress of Sir William and Joan (Sulliard) Chastelain. They had son:

John, living in 1226, married Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Bartell, knt., and Elizabeth (de Enfield) Bartell, daughter of Sir Richard de Enfield, knight. John held lands in Easton and Appletree, co. Northampton, which he gave to the prior and canons of Bradenstok. He had son -

Thomas, who married in 1248, Maude, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Hide of Hide Hall, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, knt., and Elizabeth (Sudley) Hide, daughter of John, Lord Sudley of Gloucester. By this match Hide-Hall came into the Jocelyn family and continued in it for more than six hundred years; "a longer possession than any in that county can produce." In 1897, it passed by will to Sophia, widow of the fifth earl of Roden, a nobleman who had died without male issue. ...A charter "Thomas son of John" is still preserved in the Jocelyn family. Thomas and Maude had son -

Thomas, born at Hide-Hall, in 1249; married Joan, daughter of John Blunt. Thomas died shortly after his second marriage in 1285.

Ralph [second child of Thomas and Joan], born December 13, 1275; succeeded his (older) brother, died in 1314. Married (1) Ann Sandys, dau. of William; m. (2) Maud, dau. of Sir John de Sutton, knt., and Margery (de Somery), dau. of Roger de Somery, Baron of Dudley. George Washington was a descendant of this Baron. Upon the marriage of his dau. Maud, to Ralph Josselyn, Sir John de Sutton presented them with his beautiful estate, Shellow-Bowells. This capital messuage, located in Essex, has an interesting history. When Edward the Confessor, was recalled to England's throne, this manor belonged to Harold, Edward's successor. It has, almost ever since the Conquest, (1066) had an additional name as Boells (or Bowells) Jocelyn, Torrell, etc. In the Doomsday Book, it is listed under the Torrells. In the time of Henry III, it was in the possession of Richard de Bowles of Scheloges, from which it took one of its distinguishing appellations. Ralph Jocelyn changed its name to Shellow-Jocelyn. He held court there in 1298. In 1302, he held one and a half knight's fees in Schellow, Sawbridgeworth. (A knight's fee was the amount of land from which the service of one knight was required. It was not of an exact extent or value, but in later practice in England, was estimated at 600 acres.) In 1309, Ralph was a commissioner to collect a tax in Herts., for the war with Scotland. Among other children, Ralph and Maud had son -

Geoffrey, b. at Schellow-Jocelyn, Essex; m. Margaret, dau. of Sir Robert Rokell; lived at Schellow-Jocelyn until 1338, when on Dec. 28 of that year he granted it to his dau. Margaret, and her husband, Robert de Marshall of Northweld, during their lives, subject to a rent charge of 6 pounds a year, during the life of Geoffrey's mother. Soon after this transaction, Schellow-Jocelyn passed out of the Jocelyn family into the possession of the Torrell family, who were then seated at Torrell's Hall, in Little Thurrock, Essex. Two hundred years later it again reverted to the Jocelyn family through the marriage of Anne Torrell to Henry Jocelyn. Geoffrey was living at Cockenhatch in 1352. He probably died there, before 1373. One of his children was -

Ralph, of Hide Hall; succeeded to his father's lands not later than 1373. That year he held a knight's fee in Sawbridgeworth. He m. Margaret, daughter of Sir John de Patmore, son of John and Sarah de Patmore, and grand-son of Philip, of Patmore Hall. Ralph died in 1383.

Geoffrey, Esq. [second child of Ralph and Margaret] received Hide Hall from his (older) brother (when he died about 1407); m. Joan, dau. of Thomas Berrie. On Oct. 17, 1394, he is recorded as about to go into Ireland in the king's service with Thomas de Percy, steward of the king's household. By his will of 1424, he left Hide Hall to his (oldest) son and heir, Thomas, subject to the dower of his wife, Joan. Geoffrey d. in 1425, and was buried in Sawbridgeworth.

Geoffrey, 4th ch. of Geoffrey and Joan, was b. ca 1406; d. Jan. 2, 1470/71; m. (1), Katherine, dau. of Sir Thomas le Braye; m. (2), Joanne . . . ; all three were buried in the Church at Sawbridgeworth, where a memorial brass contains this imperfect inscription:- "Hic jacet Galgridus Joslyne et Katerina ac Johana uxur . . . eius qui obit xx die mensis Janurii anno dm mcccclxx quor . . ." (1470/71).

Ralph, 5th ch. of Geoffrey and Joan . . . was elected Sheriff of the City of London, in 1458; he was elected alderman from Corn Hill ward, Nov. 29, 1456; was master of the Company of Drapers, 1457-8; auditor in 1463; lord mayor of London, 1464-65 and again in 1476. He was knighted by King Henry VI, at the expiration of his first term in office as Lord Mayor May 24, 1465. He was a member of Parliament for London, in 1467. In his mayoralty, Sir Ralph had the wall of London repaired between Aldgate and Aldersgate, and the Fleet Ditch cleaned. He also corrected the abuses of bakers and victuallers. From the point of view of public service, he was certainly the most prominent man in the family. Sir Ralph died October 25, 1478, and was buried in St. Swithin's Church, London, of which he was a benefactor, "in a `fair tomb' which was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666." A memorial brass was erected to his memory in the Church at Sawbridgeworth, his birth-place . . . Sir Ralph left no children. . . . The Church at Long Melford, co. Suffolk, contains a fine old stained-glass window, representing Sir Robert Clifford, his wife Elizabeth, and her first husband, Sir Ralph Jocelyn.

John, of Sheering, son of Geoffrey and Katherine (le Braye) Jocelyn, was born about 1430; died before August, 1524; married Anne Lavenham, and received Gatesbury Manor, an estate with an interesting history. . . . [One] moiety of the manor, called Uphall, belonging to John Lavenham, descended to his daughter Anne, married to John Josselyn, who was a zealous supporter of the Lancastran faction. "Loyalty in 1460, was treason in 1461, and John Josselyn, too honest or too imprudent not to side with the victorious Party, was declared to be a rebel and his estate was forfeited to the king, who conferred it upon Nicholas Harpesfield." Perhaps from a sense of justice, or perhaps from motives of policy, the king, eleven years later, annulled his grant to Nicholas, and restored Edward Josselyn, [oldest] son and heir of John, to the greater part of his father's estates.

Ralph, of Much Canfield [High-Roding, Essex], second son of John and Anne (Lavenham) Jocelyn (also spelled Josselyn), was born about 1475; married Elizabeth Cornish, daughter and co-heiress of William Cornish. He was deceased [before Oct. 1530].

Ralph, of Much Canfield, and later Fyfield, Essex, b. ca 1503, 3rd child of Ralph and Elizabeth (Cornish) Josselyn, inherited through the will of his father, some freehold and copyhold lands, also his father's tenement in Much Canfield called "Lovedens." He evidently did not stay upon the land. There is no record of his paying taxes there. No record of his wife's name has been found. He died in 1546.

John, of Fyfield, Chignal-Smealy, and Roxwell, co. Essex, yeoman, son [2nd child] of Ralph, was b. probably at Fyfield ca 1525; died, Feb. 18, 1578/9, and was buried at Roxwell. This Jocelyn seems to have moved about more frequently than other members of his family. We must remember that there was much confusion in England at this particular time. Because open fields were then being enclosed for sheep raising, many yeomen were evicted from small farms. Perhaps John suffered this distress. He m. at Fyfield, Jan. 15, 1544/5, Mrs. Alice Nevell, a widow. Perhaps she is the "widow Jocelyn," who died at Roxwell, Jan. 31, 1600/1. John was taxed at Fyfield, in June 1546, and in April, 1547. Fyfield was seven miles from New-Hall Jocelyn, in High Roding, Essex, and five miles from Hide Hall, Herts., and two miles from Torrell's Hall. John was never taxed at Chignal-Smealy, six miles northeast from Fyfield. Sometime before 1561, he removed to Roxwell, lying between Fyfield and Chignal-Smealy, where he lived the rest of his life.

Ralph, of Roxwell, Essex, 6th child of John and Alice Nevell Josselyn was b. ca 1556, at Chignal-Smealy, Essex; d. at Roxwell, Mar. 19, 1631/2. He and his [younger] brother Simon, purchased the messuage called Bollinghatch, and Simon who was single, made his home with him. Ralph m. (1) May 22, 1583, Mary Bright; m. (2), Dorothy . . ., who survived him and was bur. at Roxwell, Oct. 16, 1634. [His fifth child, Thomas, b. 1591/2 and bapt. at Roxwell, was the emigrant ancestor.]


Excerpts from Part III of the book:

. . . Please note the name spelling. . . . Thomas, our emigrant ancestor, from whom all the American Joslins come, was recorded on the ship's list as "Thomas Jostlin." He is recorded in Watertown and Sudbury as Joslin, and in Hingham, as Josselyn. In a Lancaster record, his name is spelled "Jocelyn," which is probably the correct spelling.

Thomas, fifth child of Ralph and Mary (Bright) Jocelyn, was born at Bollinghatch, the ancestral home in county Essex, England, in 1591/2. He probably received his portion of his father's estate when he left home to make his way in London, as his father in his will of 1626, bequeathed to him only five pounds, whereas the other sons received much larger portions.

Thomas married, in 1615, Rebecca Marlowe, born in London, in 1592. After living in or near London a number of years, they moved to Barham, co. Suffolk, where their youngest child was born. April 17, 1635, Thomas embarked for New England in the ship "Increase," of London, commanded by Capt. Robert Lea. The passenger list contained the names of Thomas Jostlin, husbandman, aged 43, Rebecca, his wife, aged 43; Elizabeth Ward, a maid-servant, aged 38; and five of their seven children - Rebecca, 18, Dorothy, 11, Nathaniel, 8; Elizabeth, 6; and Mary, a year old.

On his arrival in New England, the ship docked at Boston. Thomas went first to Watertown, Mass. The settlers there heard the glowing reports of the Musketsquid valley, the long lush meadows, the tall swamp grass, the rolling hills with timber. The fish were plentiful in the stream. The natural clearings could be planted without the drudgery of stump-pulling and wood cutting. As shipload after shipload of immigrants arrived from England to settle in the seacoast communities, the inhabitants at Watertown were feeling the need of more meadow. Consequently, in 1637, the greater part of the Watertown inhabitants petitioned the General Court that they "might leave to remove and settle a plantation upon the River which runs to Concord."

Thomas became an original proprietor in the new settlement which in 1639 was given the name, "Sudbury." Other settlers who went with him were Nathaniel Treadway and John Howe. That same year Daniel Hudson came over from England.

On the east side of this new community lay Watertown; on the North was Concord. The south and west were wilderness, and in the ancient records it was called "wilderness Land."

Samuel Maverick, probably the town clerk in 1660, wrote - "They plant and breed cattle, and gett something by trading with the Indians."

In 1640, the first Sudbury Church was organized, Congregationalist in government, and Calvinist in doctrine. It was called a "Meeting House." So bitter were the New England Colonists against the Anglican Church, that the word "church" was forbidden and excluded from common usage for a full century.

Like all the puritan houses of that day, we may assume that Thomas' first house in this new land was built on what we would term the medieval pattern; with huge chimneys, casement windows, sturdy doors, and many gables. He was a man of substance, and men of substance, especially Englishmen, did not live in log cabins in that particular period.

It appears that his sons, Abraham and Joseph, joined their parents between 1637 and 1645. Joseph probably remained in the family home in Sudbury, and Abraham went to Hingham, a town southeast of Boston, at the southern end of Boston Bay.

We find Thomas and his family in Hingham in 1645, where he was a proprietor and Selectman (town officer). He had bought land of his son-in-law Thomas Nichols. Since a number of the descendants of Thomas Josselyn grew up in Hingham, a few remarks about this town would not be amiss at this point in our narrative.

Hingham is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts. There were settlers there as early as 1633. The town consisted of perhaps less than one hundred homes, and a half dozen streets such as North Street where the Josselyns lived, South Street, Main Street, Spring Street and Bachelor Row. These were not the kind of streets we have today. They were unimproved; merely grassy lanes with deep-cut ruts from farm wagons and other vehicles. There were no sidewalks. Paths led from house to house and from farm to farm.

All the families were large. The women wove the cloth that made their garments. We would say their clothes were homespun. Farming seems to have been their chief business at that time. Commercial relations were not always carried out by payments in money, but sometimes wholly or in part, in produce.

Thomas is listed in the Colonial records as "husbandman and pioneer;" as a man of "business ability and generous disposition."

Thomas and his son, Nathaniel, sold their other property [in 1653] . . . and removed to the new town of Lancaster (Mass.) on the "western outpost of civilization" . . . Thomas purchased fifty acres of upland and twenty acres of swamp-land . . . on the west side of what decades later became known as Main Street in Lancaster. He signed the covenant for a local government, September 12, 1654, and is listed as one of the original proprietors of the town. He died there January 3, 1660/1, aged 69 years . . .

Abraham, mariner, oldest son of Thomas and Rebecca Marlowe) Josselyn, was born in London, England, in 1619; died at sea in 1670. He attended Corpus Christi school in London; married and had a child which died before September 1, 1644. His wife probably died soon after. He is recorded in the early history of our country as having been in Salisbury, (a shire town belonging to New Hampshire and Massachusetts) April 1, 1647, where he was witness to a deed executed that day, regarding his house in Salisbury. He was with his father in Hingham, Mass., in 1647.

According to the diary of Rev. Ralph Josselyn [relation to Abraham not identified], Abraham was with him at Earl's Colne, March 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1644/5, at which time they discussed the "purchase of the Canaryes." Rev. Ralph recorded, "It was a sad, long journey and one tedious fight with a Kings pyratt." He also mentioned New England as having "this summer, divers losses at sea, and scarce any before."

Abraham remained in England until sometime in 1646. While there, in 1645, he married Beatrice Hampson, born 1623, died, 1712, daughter of Philip Hampson, clothier, of London.

Abraham was largely interested in commerce, and probably owned several ships sailing between Plymouth and England. He was a proprietor of Black Point (Scarborough) Maine; a member of the Grand Jury there in 1659, the year he sold his property and went to Lancaster, Mass., where his father lived.

"Abraham, Scarborough, with wife, sold 200 acres of land 27 October 1659; deed witnessed by Henry and Margaret Jocelyn; removed to Boston with wife, Beatrice; sold land at Scarborough which had been in his possession for "divers years past." This land was sold to Mr. Scottow, 8 June 1660. It included "Josselyn's great hill, later known as Scottoway's Hill."

By 1663, Abraham had rejoined the rest of the family at Lancaster, where he maintained his residence until his death. He was a man of enterprise and some wealth . . .

An abstract of his will on file in the Surrogate's office, in New York: -

"Abraham Jossling, Nashay (Indian name for Lancaster) being very sick, leaves to wife, one house in Nashaway, with land thereto belonging. To eldest son, Abraham, one farm that goodman Kittle lives on. And good wife, I would not have you remain where you are with any of my children, but my desire is that my children may be put out to trades where they are. To son, Henry, 20 shillings, and I desire him to be kind to his brothers, and to take one of them to himself to learn his trade, as he hath promised me. Dated: March 16, 1669/70. Witnesses: Christopher and Thomas Spicer. Proved and confirmed: April 17, 1670."

From the Middlesex Court files:

"Whereas Abraham Joslyn dyed not long since at sea, of from ye coast of Virginia, in ye ship `Ye Good Fame' of New York, but before his decease made a will, the which hath been approved by ye oath of two persons who are witnesses thereto, wherein he disposeth of his estate in Nashawaye and elsewhere in his Magesties Colony of Massachusetts, unto his wife and children . .."

Beatrice, widow of Abraham . . . died at Boston, . . . January 11, 1711/12, aged 88 years.

Henry, Blacksmith, son of Abraham and Beatrice (Hampson) Josselyn, was born at Scarborough, Maine, about 1652; died at Hanover, Mass., October 30, 1730. He left Scarborough in the spring of 1676, and went to Scituate, Mass., and on Nov. 4th of that year, married Abigail Stockbridge, aged 16, daughter of Charles and Abigail (Pierce) Stockbridge, born at Charleston, Mass., Feb. 24, 1660/1, and baptized in the Second Congregational Church of Scituate, June 10, 1678. Her father (b. in England, 1634) in his will, bequeathed to "daughter Abigail, wife of Henry Josselyn, 18 pounds."

Henry's home "stood in the field, 50 rods east of Judge Cushing's farm-house." Henry could never "brook the sight of an Indian," after his brother's family were so brutally massacred. Henry sold some land at Hingham, that once belonged to his grandfather, Thomas Josselyn. On November 10, 1695, he sold to Thomas Harris, 110 acres of land in Lancaster, that had been in the possession of his father, Abraham.

In the burial ground at Hanover, his name is recorded: "1730 Henry Josselyn 90." In the Hanover record is this statement "the oldest man in that part of town for years." (The greater part of Hanover originally belonged to Scituate).

Henry, of Pembroke, 12th child of Henry Josselyn [and Abigail Stockbridge], was b. in Scituate, March 1697; bapt. in the Second Church, Jan. 27, 1716/17, at the age of 20; m. Sept. 23, 1718, Hannah Oldham, b. June 23, 1700, dau. of Isaac (b. 1669) and Hannah Oldham.

Charles, of Pembroke, 8th child of Henry and Hannah (Oldham) Josselyn, was born in Pembroke, May 7, 1739; died there, Nov. 21, 1812. He responded to the Lexington Alarm in Capt. Thomas Turner's company, Massachusetts militia; married at Pembroke, July 10, 1760, Rebecca Keen, III.

Charles, of Hanson, Mass., anchorsmith, 4th child of Charles and Rebecca (Keen) Josselyn, was born in Pembroke, January 9, 1767; died, Nov. 2, 1846, of "Jaunders"; married (1) November 14, 1790, Lucy Dwelly, who died, April 20, 1829, aged 58 years. He married (2), January 6, 1831, Mrs. Joanna Felton, widow of Thorndyke Felton. She died Jan. 12, 1874, aged 84 yrs.

Alonzo, of Roxbury and Boston, Iron founder, 13th child of Charles and Lucy (Dwelly) Josselyn, was born in Hanson or Hanover, Mass., January 23, 1818; married, December 24, 1846, Caroline A. Morse, of Roxbury. They were living in Boston in 1853.