| 8. | Brown Josiah was born on 30 Jan 1742 in Concord, Middlesex Co., MA (son of Brown John and Potter Elizabeth); died on 18 Mar 1831 in Elizabethtown, Essex County, NY?; was buried in New Ipswich Cemetery, New Ipswich, Hillsborough County, NH. Notes:
First to break the home ties and leaving Concord was Captain Josiah Brown who, in 1765, traveled forty miles to settle in the emerging town of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, settling on Flat Mountain, one half mile east of where his brother, John, later settled.
Josiah and his family moved along with five of his brothers to Whitingham, VT around 1800, immediately after his marriage, and settled upon Flat Mountain, half a mile eastward from his brother, and soon became a prominent man in military and in religious matters. his name is borne upon the Concord roll as that of a sergeant, he was first lieutenant in Capt. Towne's company at bunker Hill, and claimed to have fired the last gun before the retreat; and he afterward was captain in command of a company largely composed of his fellow townsmen which responded with great promptness to the calls for immediate aid. He was one of the foremost in the organization of the Baptist church, in which he was made the first deacon. Like many men of intense vision and prompt action, he may have lacked something in breadth of view, but work in the evolution of a new society can hardly be overvalued.( p. 269, History of New Ipswich, NH)
Combining civic purpose with matrimony, Josiah and his bride, Sarah Wright, the daughter of Joseph and Rebecca (Heywood) Wright, also of Concord, cast their lots with other Concord citizens in the effort to reinforce by their physical presence the claim of the Massahusetts Bay colony to title to this disputed area. While New Hampshire eventually prevailed over Massachusetts in the contest for this land, Joseiah and Sarah met with success in establishing themselves in the frontier environment.
At the time of Josiah's migration there was but one church in the new community, the Congregational meeting house, in which he purchased a corner pew for 43 pounds on 25 November 1768. In the latter part of the century he became prominent in the organization of the Baptist church and waas its first deacon. In addition to church activities and farming, Josiah found time for civic duties, serving three terms as a member of the Committee of Correspondence and Inspection, in 1775, 1776 and 1778. He led two marches to Ticonderoga during the Revolutionary War and also fought at Bunker Hill, progressing from the rank of sergeant, when he was on the roster of a company of Concord, Massachusetts minutemen at the time of the Concord fight, to that of captain. Of his thirteen children, all but one grew to maturity. Five eventually moved to Whitingham, Vermont, but Josiah and his wife lived out their days in New Ipswich. He has been described as "one of those men whose work in the evolution of a new society can hardly be overvalued."
Fourteen years after Josiah had moved to the wilderness, he was joined by an elder brother, John and his wife, Elizabeth Bateman.
While most of their children moved from place to place, the fourth daugher, Hannah, and her husband, Aaron Brown, remained in New Ipswich throughout their lives. A linchpin in the family structure, their home became a confluence throught which the family news from points as distant as Canada, northern Vermont and western New York occasionally ebbed and flowed.
Hannah preserved thirteen letters as well as her "own" family Bible and passed them on to succeeding generations. After her death, two additional letters were place in the collection, written by her grandson, Addison Prescott Brown.
Josiah married Wright Sarah on 31 Oct 1765 in Ipswich, Essex County, MA. Sarah was born on 27 Nov 1744 in Concord, Middlesex Co., MA; died on 08 Aug 1821 in New Ipswich, Hillsborough County, NH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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