Person:Joseph Twitchell (9)

Research Notes

The fornication charge in 1679 and the wording of the judgement, plus the age of John and Edward (thought to be Joseph's sons), all suggest that Joseph married twice. His second wife was Lydia Goad/Goard as proved by her father's will.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Death Record, in Baldwin, Thomas W. Vital Records of Sherborn, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, Mass: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1911)
   p 225.

   TWITCHEL, Joseph Sr., Oct. 24, 1710.

2. ↑ Will Transcript of Benjamin Twitchell, in Massachusetts. Probate Court (Suffolk County). Probate records, 1636-1899. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1969-1971)
   9:66.

   29 Dec 1681, administration of the estate of "Benjamin Twitchell late of Sherborne dece^d intestate is granted unto Joseph Twitchell his eldest Son."

3. ↑ Will Transcript of Edward Riggs, in Massachusetts. Probate Court (Suffolk County). Probate records, 1636-1899. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1969-1971)
   7:200-1.

   [FHL 584128: Probate records v. 5-7 1666-1674]
   [Note: Original Will located at the Commonwealth Archives, Boston, Massachusetts.]
   -----
   ... "my grandchildren Joseph Twitchell and Hanp [sic] Twichell" who had not come of age, ...

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Family Recorded, in The Genealogist (American Society of Genealogists). (New York, New York: Organization for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, 1980-)
   Vol 23 (2009), p 137.

   THE GENEALOGY OF EDWARD RIGGS OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, REVISITED, by Robert Charles Anderson, F.A.S.G., and Alvy Ray Smith.

5. ↑ Court Record, in Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. (Boston, Massachusetts: The Society, 1895-1951)
   Vol 30, p 1014.

   [Records of the Suffolk County Court, 1671-1680, Part II (Boston, 1933)]
   [Session of 29 Apr 1679]
   "Joseph Twitchell and Lydia his now wife convict'd by their own confession in Court of committing Fornication before marriage, sentenc'd to pay three pounds in money fine to the County & fees of Court standing committ'd & c'd"

6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Will of Joseph Twitchell Recorded, in Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Probate Records
   Book 12A:258-62.

   [will of Joseph Twitchell of Sherborn, signed 22 Dec 1690, proved 4 Dec 1710, mentions wife "Lidia"]

7.   Family Recorded, in Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Genealogy of the Twitchell family: record of the descendants of the Puritan Benjamin Twitchell, Dorchester, Lancaster, Medfield and Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1632-1927. (New York: Private printing for H.K. Twitchell, 1929)
   pp 5-11.

   2 JOSEPH TWITCHELL (Benjamin¹), oldest son of Benjamin Twitchell and Mary (Riggs) Twitchell, was born, in all probability, in Dorchester, Mass., not later then [sic] 1640. He became the owner, by inheritance, of the one hundred acres of Kaine's grant, which had been purchased by his father. As such, he united with the others, on June 12, 1682, to extinguish the Indian claim to the remainder of the lands in Sherborn, Mass. A copy of the deed of transfer or relinquishment from the Indians to him and the others is found in the Historical Introduction to this work. As early as 1680, he rented and mowed the Pond Meadows in Holliston, Mass.
   He married LYDIA, probably JOHNSON, who was from Lancaster, who died in Sherborn April 27, 1725. She is the "Widow Twitchell" who, in 1721, was assessed the sum of one shilling, eight pence for the payment of the salary of the Rev. Daniel Baker, the minister at Sherborn, along with her sons, Joseph and Ephraim, and her nephews, Benjamin, Ebenezer and John Twitchell. They resided in West Sherborn and built their home a few rods northwest of Royal Stone's, where home-lots had been assigned to him and to his brother, Benjamin.⁽⁹⁾
   Rev. Abner Morse, of Sherborn, in his History of the Twitchells, alias Tuchels,⁽¹⁰⁾ which was used by the Rev. Levi W. Leonard in his History of Dublin, New Hampshire, declares that "he was a man of irreproachable character ; and tradition represents him to have been a Cyclops in stature and a Hercules in strength." He and his brother, Benjamin, signed the "Social Compact" of Sherborn in 1679.
   Joseph Twitchell was a noted Indiana fighter and served in the Colonial army in the Narragansett campaign commanded by General Josiah Winslow, governor of Plymouth Colony, being a soldier in Captain Samuel Mosely's company, with which organization he had been serving during almost the entire year 1675, and in which he was rated as a "veteran" at the muster at Dedham, Mass., on Dec. 9th of that year. ...
   
   ... The right of Joseph Twitchell to one of these claims [to the seven Narragansett townships] was sustained.
   On February 10, 1676, a large body of Indians fell upon Lancaster and burned nearly half the town, consisting of fifty families, ... Captain Wadsworth mustered a company of about 40 men of his garrison and hastened to the rescue of the remaining portion of the town ... Joseph Twitchel was in this company, according to tradition, and also took part in the fight which occurred at Sudbury, April 20th of the same year, and the tradition is well supported by the archives.
   Joseph Twitchell and at least two of his brothers were in the expedition to Canada in 1690. This statement is supported by the fact that the grant of the township known as "Sudbury-Canada" names the heirs as having rights on account of having served in that expedition.
   Joseph Twitchell died and was buried at Sherborn, Mass. Oct. 24, 1710, leaving at least eight children and possibly nine, as one, Edward Twitchell, mentioned in the Sudbury-Canada grant, must have been his son. There is no other mention of this Edward Twitchell and it must be taken for granted that he was killed in the Indian wars or lost his life in the expedition to Canada in 1690, and left no issue.
   The children of Joseph Twitchell of whom we have records are:
   10 JOHN, b. ab. 1674.
   11 PATIENCE, b. December 2, 1678.
   12 CONTENT, b. January 25, 1680.
   13 CHARITY, b. December 7, 1682.
   14 SARAH, b. November 15, 1684.
   15 LYDIA, b. October 11, 1686.
   16 JOSEPH, b. September 3, 1688.
   17 EPHRAIM, b. October 24, 1695.
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   ⁽⁹⁾ Rev. Abner Morse, op. cit.
   ⁽¹⁰⁾ Mss. used at the Centennial Celebration at Dublin, N.H.