Joseph Davis

Joseph Davis was a young Billerica soldier of 1775, a grandson of the first Deacon Joseph Davis. He was born on March 25, 1751, the son of Deacon Joshua Davis and Hannah Jaquith. An older brother of the same name had died as a small child in 1750; among his surviving brothers were Joshua, Benjamin, Timothy and William.

Hazen's list of Billerica soldiers places him among the men of 1775, the minute-men and those who answered the Lexington alarm and served in the army at Cambridge, and marks him as having died in the war, in 1777. He died on January 14, 1777, at twenty-five, and his father the deacon died four days later, on January 18. He was buried in the Old South Burying Ground, where his gravestone stands.

His name is on the Revolutionary War plaque that the Billerica Historical Society placed on the Meeting House Site Memorial on the Town Common in 2001 (dedicated on October 27 of that year), which names the fourteen Billerica soldiers known to have given their lives in the war.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 39: Joseph, son of Joshua Davis (2), b. 1751, d. 1777
2. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 355: Joseph, s. Joshua and Hannah, Jan. 14, 1777, aged 25 (gravestone)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 244: list of Billerica soldiers in the Revolution ("Davis, Joseph, 1, *1777")