Thomas Josselyn

Thomas Josselyn was born in 1591 in Roxwell, Essex, England.¹ He was the son of Ralph Josselyn.¹

By a deed dated 29 September 1613, Thomas's father Ralph and uncle Simon conveyed ten acres of farm land to Thomas's brother Ralph Jr. and to a John Jude, yeoman, of Radwinter, Essex.² After the death of Ralph senior, the land was to go to Thomas Josselin and Rebecca Jude and their future heirs "lawfully begotten." If however Ralph senior's executors paid Thomas and Rebecca £100 within a year of Ralph's death, the conveyance would be voided. Evidently Ralph Josselin senior had borrowed £100 from John Jude, probably Rebecca's father, and the conveyance was part of a marriage settlement in anticipation of the marriage of Thomas and Rebecca.³ This deed explains why Thomas's father, in his will of 1626, left him only £5.

Thomas Josselyn married Rebecca Jude, daughter of John Jude, about 1615.¹ Thomas Josselyn resided in Barham, Suffolk, England, just before his emigration to New England in 1635; Barham is where his youngest daughter Mary was baptized in March 1633/34.¹

Thomas Josselyn and Rebecca Jude emigrated in 1635 from England in the Increase of London with five of their children (the oldest son, Abraham, emigrated later) and a maid servant.^4,5,6,7 The date of their enrollment for sailing was 17 April 1635.⁷

Thomas Josselyn lived in 1637 at Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.⁸ In Hingham he was a proprietor and town officer, and bought land in 1638 from his son-in-law Thomas Nichols (husband of Rebecca.)¹

From Edith Wessler's Josselyn genealogy: 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." . . . 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."⁹

On 11 March 1652/53 Thomas and his son Nathaniel sold their lands in Hingham.¹ Thomas signed the civil compact in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on 12 November 1654.^1,10

Thomas Josselyn died on 3 January 1660/61 in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.^4,1,11,10 He left a will dated 9 May 1660 and proved 2 April 1661, in which he appointed his wife executrix and mentioned his sons Abraham and Nathaniel, grandson Abraham (son of Abraham), and daughters Rebecca Nichols, wife of Thomas, Mary Sumner, wife of Roger, and Elizabeth "Emons."^1,12

Savage states that all the descendants of this patriarch, it is believed, until the end of the 1700s, spelled the name "Joslin," or sometimes "Joslyn."¹⁰