Person:Joeb Stafford (1)

Was a cooper by trade, but helped with the work on his father's farm in Coventry. He was deputy to the Colonial assembly from Coventry in 1762, and during the immediate years following, become interested with others from Coventry and Providence, in the formation of a company to take up several thousand acres of unsettled timbered land in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts. In 1767, he moved to New Providence, the name by which the new territory was called, and settled on a large tract on the hill southeast of what is now Adams, purchasing three "lots" (farms) from Joseph Bennet and Nicholas Cooke. His section become known as "Stafford's Hill." Some ten years later, Stukely Westcott, of the fifth generation, came also from Coventry and settled upon farm tracts near him. Joeb was a Colonel in the Revolution, serving with a Massachusetts regiment at the battle of Bennington, where he was wounded by a Tory neighbor. source: Westcott History, by J. Russell Bullock

"Joab[4] was born Nov. 14, 1729. He was a farmer like most of the men of that day, but we also learn from the town records of Coventry that he was possessed of considerable real estate...Jan. 29, 1767, we find that he sold to John Lyon of Cranston "the rents of one-half of his saw mill, lumber yards, dams and streams of water; also cart-way through his farm to mill for twenty-five years." Oct. 6, 1751, he married Susannah, daughter of John Spencer of Rhode Island, born Sept. 17, 1729, and of the ten children by this marriage, seven were born in Greenwich and Coventry, R. I., prior to the year 1767...We find him called "Captain" in 1762, and elected a deputy for Coventry to the general court...he bought, Nov. 5, 1766, of Nicholas Coke, Esq., of Providence, R. I., and Joseph Bennet, Esq., of Coventry, R. I., three several lots of land, in all three hundred and ninety-six acres, in the county of Berkshire, province of Massachusetts Bay, between East Hoosick and Williamsburgh, so called. He, "Joab Stafford, Esq., of Coventry, R. I.", paid for these lands the sum of £150. Other Rhode Island families purchased land in the same locality at this time, and the new plantation received the name of New Providence in commemoration of Providence, R. I. ...Dr. Holland, in his History of Western Massachusetts, mentions "Col. Joab Stafford, Joseph Bennet, and Gov. Cook as the first proprietors of New Providence"...After his settlement at Stafford Hill, he engaged in trade. His goods were purchased at Providence, R. I., and drawn from thence by ox-teams, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. Holland affirms that Gov. Cook once accomplished the distance on horseback in twenty-one hours...Col. Joab was a member of the religious sect called Anabaptists, and is mentioned, June 2, 1760, as a trustee of that society in Coventry. Soon after the settlement of New Providence, Mass., Elder Peter Warden assumed the charge of the newly formed Baptist church. He had ministered to the church in Coventry from April, 1757 to 1769, when, "as a large part of his people had emigrated, he also went and settled in Berkshire." The ground upon which the church and parsonage were erected, and also the farm attached to the parsonage were the gift of Col. Joab Stafford...On the advance of Gen. Burgoyne's forces towards Bennington, he promptly marched to the field of battle. It is quite probable that Col. Joab and his company were of the Berkshire militia or minute men, who fought that day under Col. Symonds... Wounded in the foot by a musket ball, he was carried on a litter by the victors to Stafford Hill. "Capt." Joab was placed on the list as an invalid pensioner, June, 1794, and soon after he must have been appointed a colonel of Massachusetts militia, for in a conveyance of property, dated May 22, 1779, he is styled "Colonel," prior to which date he is spoken of as "Esquire"...Having become a revolutionary pensioner in 1794, he applied to congress for back pay during the interval between that date and 1777, but his request, like many others of the same nature, was denied. Feb. 15, 1783, "Joab Stafford, Gentleman, of Adams", sold a portion of his property and with his family removed to Albany, N. Y.; and Nov. 4, 1785, he parted with the remainder, in consideration of £372 10s. He continued in business in Albany for a short time, and his name appears repeatedly in connection with the deputy secretary of state, as commissioner to partition large land patents. After the death of his wife, Sept. 1, 1795, he resided with his son-in-law, just outside the city limits, in the town of Bethlehem. Here he lived until 1800, when, nearly overcome by disease, the veteran returned to Cheshire, and died at the house of his son Richard, Nov. 23, 1801. He was buried at Cheshire...The children of Joab and Susannah (Spencer) Stafford, were:

I. MARY, born Aug. 10, 1753. II. ISABEL, born Oct. 21, 1755. III. RUTH, born Aug. 23, 1757 ; died unmarried, aged 18. IV. SAMUEL, born Aug. 2, 1759. V. DAVID, born Nov. 6, 1761. VI. RICHARD, born Sept. 24, 1763. VII. JOAB, born Sept. 16, 1765. VIII. JOHN, born Oct. 16, 1768. IX. SUSANNAH, born July 10, 1770; died Aug. 28. 1770. X. SPENCER, born May 10, 1772."

-- Collections on the History of Albany, Vol. III. (1870) by Joel Munsell, pp. 441-44

1. ↑ Warwick Births and Deaths, in Arnold, James N. Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636–1850: First series, births, marriages and deaths. A family register for the people. (Narragansett Hist. Publ. Co., 1891)
   204.

   STAFFORD, Joab, of Thomas and Audrey, [born] Nov. 14, 1729.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Raynor, History of the Town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass (1885)
   pp.52-53.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Joab Stafford Monument.

   "In memory of Col.
   Joab Stafford who
   Fought & bled in his
   Country's Cause at
   the Battle of Bennington
   August 16th, 1777 & who
   departed this life Nov 22
   1801 aged 72 years
   and descended to the tomb
   with an unsullied reputation."
   See image.
   
   See for the history of the Monument: http://www.peterandsally.com/Towns/staffhil.htm