Joseph Lamb was born about 1690, and was the son of John Lamb, Junior, of Stonington, Connecticut, who died January 10, 1703-04.
The reasons which led him to seek an academic education when already past his majority, are not preserved ; he had probably already prepared himself in part by the study of theology, for on the 6th of December, 1717, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Long Island, over a church organized in 1715 at Mattituck, a small settlement within the limits of the present town of Southold.
He remained there, at least until April 14, 1729, when his wife Patience died there, aged 35 years, and it is believed that he continued in Mattituck for five or six years longer.
His name, however, does not appear on the rolls of the Synod, later than 1723. In 1735 he began to preach in the Fourth church in Guilford, Connecticut, and after four years' trial, he was invited, in December, 1739, to become the pastor. He accepted the invitation, but a council for his installation was not called until January, 1740-41, by which time he had altered his mind, so that he refused the office. On July 1, 1741, the society voted to release him from all obligations.
In May, 1742, the Presbytery of New York (of which at its organization in 1738 he had become a member) directed the vacant church in the parish of Turkey (now the town of New Providence), in the township of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to apply to him ; accordingly he went to them and remained about two years, but owing to some difficulty which arose was not installed.
Early in 1744 he accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, where he died, in office, July 28, 1749, in his 60th year.
For a second wife he married, as early as 1732, Sarah, daughter of Stephen Chester, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and sister of Stephen John Chester (Y. C. 1721). She returned to Newington parish, in Wethersfield, after her husband's death, and died there, January 21, 1754, aged nearly 60 years. Two daughters survived her.
In her husband's will, one son and five daughters are mentioned.
He was the moderator of the Synod of New York in 1748, and in the same year was named in the charter of the College of New Jersey as one of its Trustees.
AUTHORITIES.
Caulkins, Hist, of New London, 328.
Hatfield, Hist, of Elizabeth. 573.
Maclean, Hist, of College of N. J., i, 109.
Prime, Hist, of L. I., 142.
Rev. J. C. Rankin, MS. Letter, June, 1884.
Webster. Hist, of the Presbyterian Church, 364.
Welles, Annals of Newington, 84, 1 13-14.
Hon. R. A. Wheeler, MS. Letters, Dec, 1884.
Whitaker, Hist, of Southold, 277.
