♂Joseph Woodford

Joseph Woodford (died 1710) was a settler of Farmington in the Connecticut Colony^W and the husband of Rebecca Newell (born about 1643). He was the seventh great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his daughter Elizabeth Woodford (1682–1739).

Life

His parents are not known. James Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England places him at Farmington and says he was propounded for freeman^W there in 1663; it adds that some supposed him a son of Thomas Woodford of Hartford, “without any evid.” Savage calls the link a conjecture and notes that the will of Thomas Woodford told against it. Robert Charles Anderson’s The Great Migration Begins bears this out: Thomas Woodford’s will of 26 April 1665 leaves his whole estate to “my three daughters” and names no son.

When his wife’s brother Joseph Newell made his will at Farmington on 2 November 1689, he left “my Cloth Coat to Joseph Woodford” and his chest to Esther Woodford.

Joseph Woodford made his own will at Farmington on 10 December 1701, “being grown aged and infirm in my limbs”. He named his son Joseph, who was to be the sole executor and receive the remainder of the estate, and his eight daughters, and asked his wife’s brother Samuel Newell and his friend Ensign John Hart to oversee the settlement. The will was not proved until 1710: John Stanly Sen. and Samuel Newell Sen. took the inventory of his estate, valued at £218 10s. 6d., on 25 October 1710, and the will was proved on 6 November 1710, so he died in 1710, before the inventory was taken. The 1701 that Savage gives is the date of the will, not of his death.

Family

Joseph Woodford married Rebecca Newell, a daughter of Thomas Newell of Farmington. His will names nine children: eight daughters and a son, Joseph. Elizabeth, through whom the line runs, is the daughter he left £30; the will still calls her Elizabeth Woodford, and she married Nathaniel Cole at Farmington on 11 June 1707. The Farmington town records give a marriage for eight of the nine children between 1693 and 1710. James Savage’s genealogical dictionary says that Sarah married Nathaniel Bird, but no record of her marriage has been found. Two of the daughters were married on the same day: the Farmington town records list the marriages of Rebeckah Woodford to John Porter and of Esther Woodford to Samuel Bird, both on 2 January 1695/6.