Joseph Stearns
Joseph Stearns
| Born | 1763-06-27 Billerica, MA |
| Father | Samuel Stearns |
| Mother | Hannah Trask |
| Spouses |
Zilpah Crosby |
| Children |
Mahala
Joseph |
Joseph Stearns (born 1763) was a Billerica man of the Revolutionary generation, the father of the North Billerica farmer Joseph Stearns and of the bricklayer Royal Stearns. He was born on June 27, 1763, a son of Samuel Stearns and Hannah Trask, and was a brother of Nathaniel Stearns and Jonathan Stearns. On December 5, 1787 he married Zilpah Crosby, a daughter of Jacob Crosby. She died about 1825.
Their children, as Hazen lists them, were Samuel, who went West and was not heard from again; Mary (about 1791), who married Marshall Pierce of Chelmsford; Royal; Joseph; Zilpah, who married John Stearns, a son of Josiah; Hiram, who died young; Mahala (1809), who married James A. Lovejoy; and Jerome Bonaparte (1811). In 1823 Royal and Joseph bought eighteen acres west of the Concord River by the Mock meadow road from their cousin Nathaniel Stearns and Nathan Mears and built the Joseph Stearns House there. Royal died on May 30, 1825, aged 31, leaving a widow, Esther, and an infant daughter, and Joseph bought his half of the place at auction that November.
His father's will of 1801 named him among the ten children who were to share the estate after their mother's life use. A Joseph Stearns heads a household in Billerica in the census returns of 1790 through 1820. No record of his death or of an estate has been found.
References
Title References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Property | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | Will | Samuel Stearns of Billerica, yeoman | His widow Hannah Stearns (life use); his children Nathaniel, Jonathan, Joseph and Elijah Stearns, Elizabeth Jefts, Hannah Spaulding, Allice Stearns, Josiah and Issachar Stearns | Named among the children in his father's will | Samuel Stearns House 397 Concord Rd |
Probate #21330 |
Will dated May 1, 1801, witnessed by Sampson Spaulding, Benjamin Hubbard and Isaac Stearns: his farming utensils "and so much of my lands, as will pay my just debts" to be sold; to his wife Hannah Stearns his household furniture "including my Cyder Barrils," his best cow and three sheep, and "the improvement of all my Real Estate," reserving "a liberty for my Daughters, Hannah & Molley, to live either in the lower westerly Room with their mother, or in the chamber over it, as long as they remain unmarried"; if she remarried, half the real estate to go at once to the children in equal shares, Josiah to have half a share and Issachar, who "has had much more than all the rest," one dollar. Elijah Stearns of Bedford, yeoman, executor. Proved at Concord Sept. 15, 1801. The executor's account shows lots sold at vendue to Benjamin Hutchinson, Job Hill, Abner Stearns and Daniel Davis, and mourning bought for the ten children. Middlesex probate case 21330.
Title passed to:
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.