Joseph Wood (1760 - 1815)

Born 14 Feb 1760 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey

Ancestors

Husband of Joanna (Tuttle) Wood — married 2 Apr 1780 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey, USA

Descendants

Died 1 Aug 1815 at age 55 in Bound Brook, Somerset, New Jersey, United States

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Biography

Joseph Wood was born on 14 February 1760 in Morristown, Middlesex, New Jersey. His parents were Jonathan and Jerusha (Halsey) Wood. His Wood line appears in Morristown about 1730. Jerusha descends from the early immigrant Thomas Halsey. Joseph was christened on 13 April 1760 in Morristown, in the First Presbyterian church. ^[1]

Joseph married Joanna Tuttle on 2 April 1780, in Morristown. The marriage date is given in Joanna's 1837 application for a military pension, after Joseph's death. The application papers contain most of the information presented in this profile, including Joseph's birth, death, and marriage dates. The pension application image is on-line in Ancestry in Fold3 ($$). ^[2]

Joseph served in the Revolutionary War, first for a year in the Continental Army as a private in Sheldon's Cavalry, and then serving a total of 12 non-consecutive monthly turns under Captains John Lindsley, Peter Layton and Beach, Colonels Ford, Sylvanus Geeley, and Benoni Hathaway in the New Jersey Militia. However, when Joseph left his Cavalry unit he apparently did not provide the proper notice, and his Continental Army record has him marked as having deserted. For this reason Joanna's pension application was denied.

Per the pension application, while in the militia Joseph fought in the battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield (towns in northern New Jersey), and was present at Elizabethtown when Cornwallis surrendered.

The pension file provides a list of the children of Joseph and Joanna:

1. Jonathan (1780-1781)
2. Stephen (1781- )
3. William (1783-1806)
4. Nancy (1783-1810)
5. Joseph H. (1789-1875), married Ann Lane
6. David (1793-1817)
7. Nathan Furman (1794- )
8. Lewis (1797- )
9. Jerusha (1799- )
10. Samuel Halsey (1800- )
11. Abraham Baldwin (1805-1816)

From 1780 to 1797 in Hanover Township, Middlesex, Morris there are numerous mentions of Joseph Wood on petitions and tax lists.^[3] There are no entries for him in that index after 1797. Joseph and Joanna may have moved away to Somerset County by 1805, soon after the birth of their last child, and soon after Joseph's parents had died.

Joseph died on 1 August 1815 in Bound Brook, Somerset, New Jersey. His death date and Somerset County death location are in the pension application papers. (The Presbyterian Church records in Bound Brook begin between 1815 and 1830, so do not include any records of him).

Sources

1. ↑ "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZZX-9JY : 18 January 2020), Joseph Wood, 1760.
2. ↑ "United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSP5-L6J : 19 September 2019), Joseph Wood, Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
3. ↑ Ancestry.com New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890. All New Jersey, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890 results for Joseph Wood (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3562/?name=joseph_wood&count=50&name_x=1_1&residence=_hanover+township-morris-new+jersey-usa_8817&residence_x=0-0-0_1-0)