Joshua Underwood was born on January 31, 1682, in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joshua married Mercy Fairbank on January 13, 1707, in Sherborn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joshua Underwood died on September 2, 1727, in Holliston, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Joshua Underwood was born January 31, 1676, in Watertown located on the Charles River west of Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. He was the 6th of 10 known children of Joseph Underwood and his wife Elizabeth.
In 1691 when Joshua was 8 years of age, his father died. Joshua's father devised his estate in Watertown to be equally divided between Joshua's 2 older brothers John and Joseph when they reached the age of majority. The will instructed John and Joseph to pay Joshua 15 pounds. Two years after his father's death, Joshua's mother Elizabeth married again, William Bull. William Bull and Elizabeth moved Joshua and his younger siblings to Sherborn, west and slightly south of Boston. Joshua's brother John appears to have remained in Watertown while his brother Joseph was sent to live with a relative, Thomas Hodgman and Thomas' wife Mary, in Reading, Massachusetts. Since his sister Elizabeth married in Reading, likely she was also sent to Reading, possibly to live with oldest sister Mary, who was married and lived in Reading with her husband John Phipps.
Joshua learned the craft of masonry from his mother's second husband. In records Joshua is sometimes described as a bricklayer and sometimes described as a mason.
On January 13, 1707, Joshua married Mercy Fairbank, daughter of Eleazer Fairbank and Martha Lovitt, in Sherborn, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joshua and Mercy had the following known children:
- Mercy
- Jonathan
- Joshua
- Joseph
- Thankful
- David
- Mary
In March 1707 Joshua purchased 4 acres of a meadow in Sherborn from Daniel Morse. The land was near the Sherborn meeting house and part of a meadow known as “Twelve Acre Meadow”.
In 1709 William Bull, Joshua's mother's second husband, sold to Joshua half of the land he had purchased in Sherborn in 1705 from Elisha Bullen. The deed included 2 parcels of land, one 20 acre piece containing a house lot, the lot described as upland and swamp, and another 20 acres of upland and swamp.
In January of 1710 Joshua and Mercy sold to William Barron 3 parcels of land in Sherborn. The first 2 parcels were described as a home lot of 23 acres and a 30 acre piece of meadow and swamp. Both of these parcels were on the western side of William Bull's land and likely was the land purchased by Joshua from William. The 3rd parcel was the 4 acre part of “Twelve Acre Meadow”.
In June of 1710 Joshua purchased from Thomas Thayer half of an undivided 500 acre tract of land in Sherborn by a place commonly called Cedar Brook known as “Hoppin's Farm”. “Hoppin's Farm” had at one time belonged to Stephen Hoppin of Dorchester. The year prior, William Sheffield purchased the other half of the undivided “Hoppin's Farm” from Thomas Thayer's brother Samuel. In August, Joshua and William Sheffield divided the land, presumably equally. Joshua received the south end and northeast corner.
In January of 1712 Joshua purchased 3 acres of land from Nathaniel Morse.
In 1713 Joshua sold to “my brother Jonathan Underwood of Boston, Mariner,” a 180 acre piece of “Hoppin's Farm”.
The year 1714 was notable due to the scarcity of paper money in the Massachusetts Bay Colony which hindered the ability of residents, the government and tradesmen to conduct business. To try to correct the situation, the General Assembly resolved to print and emit £50,000 in bills of credit and place them in the hands of individuals across the colony willing to provide a security, or mortgage. The terms were that the mortgagor had 5 years to repay the mortgage with interest or could repay the whole principal at any time. Joshua participated and mortgaged 200 acres of “Hoppins Farm”, which seems unusual since, at the time, some of the acreage was in his brother Jonathan's hands. Joshua's brothers, John in Needham and Joseph in Charlestown also participated. The economic policy had unintended consequences and according to The Yale Law Review, by 1719 the economy had deflated and currency was scarce again. However, all three brothers profited as a result of their decision to participate.
In September of 1716 Joshua's brother Jonathan “now resident in Sherborn, Mariner” sold back to Joshua the 180 acres of “Hoppin's Farm”. Joshua's sister Elizabeth Phipps and her husband John witnessed the deed.
In March of 1718, Joshua purchased a 200 acre tract of land in Nipmuc County bounded on the west by Manchaug Farm.
In 1718 Joshua was granted 7 acres of common land from the town of Sherborn which adjoined his farm on the south.
In 1720 Joshua, no longer a mason, now a yeoman, sold 8 acres of Hoppins Farm to Ebenezer Pratt Jr.
In 1721 William Bull, husband to Joshua's mother Elizabeth, sold Joshua 2 parcels of land, a meadow near Joshua's farm containing 2 ½ acres and another piece containing 35 acres. The deed is of interest since 2 years prior, William entered into an agreement with John Phipps Jr., Joshua's nephew by his sister Elizabeth, that in exchange for taking care of William and Elizabeth as they aged, John Jr. would receive all his land. The original 40 acres of William's land was now decreased by 37 ½ acres. John Phipps witnessed the deed although it is not known whether the witness was John Phipps Sr. or John Phipps Jr.
In 1723 the town of Sherborn voted to set off the inhabitants on the west side of town west of Doppin Brook. The new town was incorporated in 1724 and named Holliston. Joshua's farm was on the west side and he now became a resident of Holliston.
In 1725 Joshua Underwood “of Holliston” sold a little more than 10 acres of his farm to Nathaniel Cutler.
In May of 1727 Joshua's oldest daughter Mercy married Eli Jones. By September, Joshua was deceased.
Joshua Underwood died intestate on September 2, 1727, in Holliston, Middlesex County Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial Maryland. He was 45 years of age.
Joshua's widow, Mercy, was appointed administratrix of the estate. The inventory recorded an estimated 250 acres in Holliston and another 17 acres of “wild land” in Mendon.
All of Joshua's children, with the exception of Mercy, were minors. As was the custom when a father died, the children selected guardians. Nathaniel Sheffield became guardian to Joshua, Joseph and David. Uncle Eleazor Fairbank became guardian to Thankful and Mary. When Uncle Eleazor died, Mary was still a minor and selected her brother Jonathan as her guardian.
As the intestate law of the colony dictated, a committee was appointed to appraise the real estate of Joshua Underwood and “present a true value thereof” and when the inventory was perfected they were tasked to set off to Mercy, widow of Joshua, a third for her dower. The residue or two-thirds was to be distributed among the children of the deceased or “so many of them as the estate will conveniently accommodate”.
When surveyed the farm was found to have 205 acres. Mercy's “third” was a division of 62 acres and contained the northwestern corner of the farm including a third of the house and a third of the barn. The committee found that the remaining two thirds would “accommodate two of the heirs”. It was divided into a 65 acre tract on the east side of the farm and a 78 acre tract on the southerly side of the farm which also included the remaining two thirds of the house and barn.
It was almost 10 years after Joshua Underwood's death when the estate was finally settled. As eldest son, Jonathan was entitled to a double share of the estate. However Jonathan chose not to take it and signed that “he is content to have the land settled on Eli and Joshua”. Eli was the husband of Jonathan's sister Mercy, and Joshua was Jonathan's brother and next heir at law. Eli and Mercy were assigned the 65 acre tract and Joshua Underwood was assigned the 78 acre tract.
In exchange for the land Eli and Mercy owned Jonathan a double share of the value of the estate, 172 pounds 4 shillings. Each of the other heirs was also entitled to a share of the value of their father's estate. Eli and Mercy owned Thankful 80 pounds 10 shillings. Joshua was to pay Thankful 5 pounds 20 shillings to complete her share and 86 pounds 2 shillings to each remaining sibling, Joseph, David and Mary Underwood.
Mercy, Joshua's widow, remarried in 1732, Joshua Fairbanks. They moved to Wrentham where they ran an inn.
In 1736 son Jonathan purchased his own property on Chicken Creek in Holliston. A couple of years later, his brother Joseph purchased land on Chicken Creek. Today in Holliston, Underwood Street lies off Washington Street where Chicken Creek and Washington Street meet.
In 1738 son Joshua sold his 78 acre part of his father's estate and moved to Mendon where he was a blacksmith. Joshua sold 68 acres to his brother-in-law Eli Jones and 5 acres each to Joshua and Edward Kebby also known as Kibbe.
Mercy died in 1742 and when her third of the estate was administered in 1744, sons Joshua and David were deceased. Oldest son Jonathan again chose not to take the estate and Mercy's third went to Jonathan's sister Mercy Jones. In return Mercy owed her brother Jonathan 124 pounds 8 shillings 9 pence. Mercy also owned 62 pounds 4 shillings 4 pence each to her brother Joseph, her sister Thankful Hill, her sister Mary Robbins, and to the heirs of her brother Joshua and the heirs of her brother David.
Son Jonathan sold his land in Holliston and sometime after the administration of his mother's estate in 1744, moved to Falmouth, Cumberland County, which at the time was a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After the death of his brother Joseph in Holliston in 1761, Jonathan “of Falmouth” quitclaimed all his right, title and interest in his pew in the town of Holliston to the widow and children of his “well beloved brother Joseph Underwood”.
Genealogical Research and Life Sketch Completed: June 2023
Sources:
"Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch. Suffolk County. Deeds Vol 41 Folio 144; county courthouses and offices, Massachusetts.
"Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch. Middlesex County. Deeds Vol 16 Folio 261, 264 & 265; county courthouses and offices, Massachusetts.
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“Vital Records of Holliston Massachusetts to the Year 1850”. New England Historical Society. Boston, MA. 1908.
“Probate Records, 1648 - 1924,” Middlesex County Massachusetts, Probate Court. Probate papers 23100-23228. Family Search, FHL microfilm 007553794.
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