Person:Josiah Crocker (3)

Josiah received both his A.B. (1738) and his M.A. (1741) from Harvard, and then went to preach as a probationer at Taunton. His style delighted the "New Lights", who flocked to hear him, and the church gave him a call in late 1741. In the meantime he traveled to nearby towns "revival preaching" to some notice, before being ordained at Taunton in May 1742. That summer, he married his first wife, Rebecca Allen, and they had seven children before she died in 1759. In 1761, he remarried Hannah Cobb, and they had two children. Crocker, however, began attracting attention because he "was not, as he ought to have been, a thorough Temperance man." He was found guilty of excessive use of intoxicants in 1763, but not removed, and so was dismissed on Nov. 1, 1765. He remained at Taunton, as he was only 46 when he was dismissed, preaching on occasion.^[1]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 White, Elizabeth Pearson. John Howland of the Mayflower: The First Five Generations. (Rockland, Maine: Picton Press, 1990-2008)
   129.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Josiah Crocker (Harvard, 1738), in Colonial Collegians: Biographies of Those Who Attended American Colleges before the War for Independence. (Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Historical Society & New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005)
   Harvard:4455.

   Josiah Crocker, minister of the First Congregational Society of Taunton, was born at Yarmouth on October 30, 1719, the only son of Captain Josiah and Desire (Thacher) Crocker. The Captain, who was a mariner, died in Nova Scotia in 1721, and his widow died soon thereafter. Josiah was probably raised by his grandfather, Colonel John Thacher of Yarmouth....
   
   [Josiah] was only 46 when he was dismissed, but he remained in Taunton, preaching there when he had the opportunity, until his death there on August 28, 1774."

3. ↑ Sherman, Robert M. (Robert Moody), and Ruth Wilder Sherman. Vital Records of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Warwick, Rhode Island: Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1975)
   p. 44.

   Josiah Crocker the son of Josiah and Desier Crocker he was born in Yarmouth on the 30th day of October in the year ... 1719.

4. ↑ Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Taunton, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1929, c1978)
   Vol. 3, p. 57.

   CROCKER, Josiah, Rev., [died] Aug. 28, 1774, in 55th y. [a. 55, [in lot with Rebecca] GR1].