Person:Joseph Slafter (2)

From the Memorial of John Slafter^S1:

Joseph, [son of Joseph, son of John,] b. perhaps in 1721; d. Aug. 13, 1775; m. Hannah Covel; he was admitted freeman at Newport, R.I., April 3, 1745. This is the only clue to his age which has been found. Scituate, R.I.

In the Introduction of the same book (at p. viii), it is noted how the spelling of the surname has evolved to Slaughter in this line:

Joseph, the eldest son of the above Joseph, and grandson of the emigrant ancestor, resided in Scituate, R.I. He was admitted a freeman at Newport, April 3, 1745, on which occasion his name is written Slaughter. In 1774, when a census was taken in Rhode Island, there were residing in Scituate, as heads of families, Joseph, above mentioned, and three of his sons, viz., Joseph, Jr., who afterward removed to Guilford, Vt., Abner, who removed to the State of New York, and Abial, who continued in Scituate, afterward Foster, R.I. Of the above four families, the name in the census was written Slaughter, and a part of the descendants of Abner still retain this spelling, but the bulk of those descended from these families now write the name Slater.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Slafter, Rev. Edmund Farwell. Memorial of John Slafter: with a genealogical account of his descendants, including eight generations. (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States|Boston: Press of Henry W. Dutton & Son, 1869)
   p. 40.

   number 121. Also, p. viii.