Tenth Generation

512. Joseph GRIGGS Sr. (*) (!) was born on 5 April 1624 in Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^{487,910,981,982,983,984,985,986,987,988,989,990,991,992,993} (The FamilySearch Person Tools website lists his birth date as 5 April 1624, but the Cemetery records list the year as 1625.) He was baptized on 18 December 1625.⁹⁹⁴ He emigrated in 1639 from Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^{761,933,995,996} to Roxbury, MA, less than 20 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

According to the "Genealogy of The Griggs Family," he emigrated in the Spring of 1639 with his parents and his brother, John. He became a "Freeman" in 1653. Joseph owned on 16 February 1652 in Roxbury Neighborhood, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.⁹⁹⁷ (Suff. Deed III:425) "Joseph Griggs & John Griggs, both of Roxbury in New England, sell unto Hugh Thomas of the aforesd Roxbury three acres of land in Roxbury abutting upon the high way east upon the land of Robert Prentise North and upon the land of John Ruggles South. Sealed 16 Feb 1652. In Presence of Edward Dennison, Samuel Ruggles, 18 Feb 1660." In 1680 he was a representative in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^899,995,998 He was instrumental in the founding of New Roxbury (Woodstock), Connecticut. He was a Selectman of the town, a Storekeeper and a Protestant Minister. He signed a will on 5 February 1714 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^254,501 Joseph died on 10 February 1715 at the age of 90 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{254,487,768,933,984,985,986,987,988,991,993,995,999} He was buried in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.¹⁰⁰⁰ (His exact burial location is unknown. His two wives are in the Kings Chapel (or Eliot) Burying Ground in Roxbury. The FamilySearch.org website lists his burial location as Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.) He has Ancestral File Number L6Y3-MSW. Hannah DAVIS (*) and Joseph GRIGGS Sr. (*) (!) were married on 8 November 1654 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{487,761,931,933,984,986,988,991,995,1000,1001,1002}

513. Hannah DAVIS (*) was born in 1635 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{556,990,991,992,1003} She died on 9 January 1684 at the age of 49 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{556,775,933,990,991,992} Life Sketch: "As a request for transfer of the memorial for Hannah's husband Joseph Griggs has not been honored, the purpose of this memorial is three-fold. First, prior to the present maintainer of this memorial the memorial's creator had Hannah interred at Kings Chapel cemetery associated with the First Church of Boston in downtown Boston. A William Griggs family were members of Boston's First Church and several descendants of William are interred at Kings Chapel. The relation between Hannah (Davis) Griggs' husband Joseph Griggs and William Griggs is unknown.

Second, two former gravestone photos attached to this memorial were for a Hannah Griggs apparently interred at Kings Chapel during the mid-1700s and not remotely evident of a gravestone for Hannah (Davis) Griggs who died of record in Roxbury in 1684. They have been removed.

Third, and most importantly, beginning in 1912 in various literature Hannah (Griggs) Mather, daughter of Joseph Griggs and Hannah Davis, was misidentified as Hannah (Riggs) Mather, daughter of Joseph Riggs of Roxbury, latter the son of Edward Riggs, Jr. Joseph Riggs had no daughter named Hannah. This erroneous identification impacts a line of descent from the Joseph Griggs family that leads to a Hannum family who was intimately involved with Henrietta "Nettie" Sturdevant (Colburn) Maynard, a spiritualist and medium who conducted seances with President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd during the American Civil War.
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Hannah Davis, dau. of Samuel Davis and Anna Norcross, was likely born not earlier than the year 1635. Her last known child, daughter Mary born in March 1683, would imply that Hannah was then 48 years old and on the upper edge of the traditional range of women's childbearing age. Hannah d. of record at Roxbury 9 Jan. 1683 (Rox. TR) and buried there on 11 Jan. 1683 (Rox. Ch. Rec.), but no record provides her age at death. Her recorded date of death and burial are dates in the former English Julian calendar, which in the modern Gregorian civil calendar (the basis of the Find-a-grave system) are historically represented as 9 Jan. and 11 Jan. 1683/4.

Hannah m. 8 Nov. 1654 of record at Roxbury, Mass. as his second wife, Joseph Griggs, the apparent son of Thomas Griggs (Rox. TRs). She was the mother of all of Joseph's known children.

Hannah's family relationship is first proved in the 1654 will of her uncle Jeremiah Norcross, "going to sea," who bequeathed "to my brother's dau. Ane Davis the wife of Samuel Davis, a like ewe sheep, & to her dau. Hannah, her eldest child, a like ewe sheep" (Middlesex Co., Mass. PR, 1-117/8). Hannah is next included in her father Samuel Davis' 1672 will at Boston, Mass. in which Samuel gave £10 to dau. Hannah Griggs and £3 to grandchild Hannah Griggs (Suffolk Co., Mass. PR, 7-219).

Hannah (Davis) Griggs' mother Anna Norcross m. 2) John Search and survived him dying at Boston betw. 15 May 1693 (date of will) and 6 July 1694 (probate). In Anna's will she gave a legacy of £10 to her widowed son-in-law Joseph Griggs, made Joseph one of three executors of her will while leaving multiple household goods and 1/2 of her wearing apparel to grand daughter Hannah Griggs, who soon married Jeremiah Mather.

Joseph Griggs m. 1) Mary Craft, dau. of Lieut. Griffin Craft of Roxbury, who was buried childless at Roxbury on 30 June 1653 (Rox. Ch. Rec.). Joseph survived both wives and d. testate at Roxbury on 10 Feb. 1714/5, "aged" 90 (Rox. TRs). He wrote his will on 5 Feb. 1714/5 proved 5 May 1715 (Suffolk PR, 18-461). There is no record of an estate inventory. The will includes the following provisions:

• To son Benjamin £20 to be paid £4 per year for five years.
• To dau. Hannah Mather the house and orchard now possessed by her husband Jeremiah Mather to her and her heirs etc.; also £25 with £5 pounds within 3 months of my decease with the rest at 20 shillings per year for 20 years (i.e., £1 per year for 20 years); the right to keep one cow summer and winter during her lifetime and the life of her husband Jeremiah Mather; also the wood growing on my pasture next to their house excepting;
• The timber fit for posts and rails I will to my daughters Joanna Griggs and Mary Griggs and the east end of my dwelling house, with the chamber and convenient cellarage; they to be constantly provided with goods and firewood, and 1/2 of the profit and income from the orchard, 1/2 of the garden and free use of the well for water, and keeping one cow summer and winter; all during the time they remain unmarried; upon marriage £3 per year for 10 years. Also all beds and bedding to be equally divided between them.
• All the other housing and lands to son Ichabod Griggs including all husbandry tools and implements, the cider mill and cask, all neat cattle and swine remaining; he to be sole executor.
• All household goods not disposed in the will to be equally divided between son Ichabod and daughters Joanna and Mary.
• Wit: Nathaniel Craft, Ebenezer Craft, Josiah Winchester (the two Craft witnesses were brothers and nephews of Joseph's first wife Mary Craft).

The children of Joseph Griggs and Hannah Davis, all born and/or baptized of record at Roxbury, Mass., are (surname Griggs):

• i. Samuel, bp. 5 Oct. 1656; d. in infancy the following Jan. 1656/7.
• ii. Mary, bp. 22 Nov. 1657; apparently d. in infancy but a record of her death does not appear. That she died prior to May 1672 is first implied by the will of her maternal grandfather Samuel Davis, in which her next oldest sister Hannah, then 13 years old, is the only child named in grandfather Davis' will and given a legacy of £3. Second, that a second Mary, dau. of Joseph, was b. on 27 Mar. 1683 short of a year prior to their mother's death.
• iii. Hannah, b. 25 Mar. (bp. 27 Mar.) 1659; was living on 5 Feb. 1714/5 when named in her father's will as the wife of Jeremiah Mather, latter who d. of record at Roxbury on 1 Jan. 1718/9. She is undoubtedly the Hannah Mather who was admitted to the Roxbury Church on 8 May 1726. Four children recorded at Roxbury: Mary, Hannah, Joseph and Susanna. [Susanna (Mather) Warren is the child who continues the third purpose of this memorial.]
• iv. Joseph, bp. 13 Oct. 1661; not named in his grandfather Davis' will of 1672 or his father's Feb. 1714/5 will.
• v. Benjamin, b. 2 Dec. 1667 (bp. 8 Mar. 1667/8); was a principal settler of "New Roxbury," now Woodstock in present Windham County, Conn. where he died of record 19 Aug. 1724. He m. 18 June 1701 of record at Woodstock, Patience Sabin, dau. of Benjamin Sabin and Sarah Parker, b. 3 May (bp. 7 May) 1682 at Roxbury. Nine children of the family.
• vi. Joanna, b. 10 Jan. (bp. 12 Jan.) 1672/3; was living unmarried in her father's Feb. 1714/5 will, but no further record found.
• vii. Ichabod, b. 27 Sept. (bp. 10 Oct.) 1675; d. 20 Feb. 1717/8 at Roxbury; m. by intention recorded 28 Nov 1701 at Ipswich, Mass., Margaret Bishop, dau. of Samuel Bishop & Esther Cogswell, b. 17 May 1676 at Ipswich. Eight child recorded at Roxbury.
• viii. Mary, b. 27 Mar. (bp. 1 Apr.) 1683; was living unmarried in her father's Feb. 1714/5 will, but no further record found." She was buried on 11 January 1684 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^992,1004 in the Kings Chapel (or Eliot) Burying Ground.

Children were: