JOSEPH WILCOXSON 1635-1703

[Ancestral Link: Harold William Miller, son of Edward Emerson Miller, daughter of Anna Hull (Miller), daughter of William Hull, son of William E. Hull, son of Sarah Wilcox (Hull), daughter of Stephen Wilcox, son of Joseph Wilcox, son of Joseph Wilcoxson.]


Joseph Wilcoxson
Joseph Wilcoxson was the second child and second son of William Wilcoxson and his wife, Margaret. Altogether, Joseph has four brothers and four sisters. He was born about 1636 at Concord, Massachusetts and was brought by his parents to Stratford, Connecticut in 1639. He evidently married at Stratford as there is a record of his oldest children being born there. Later Joseph Wilcoxson removed with his mother and father-in-law to the new settlement of Killingworth.

Joseph died there as a relatively young man in 1689. (One source, Clifford A. Wilcox, states that Joseph died 9 February 1703 in Killingworth, Middlesex County, Connecticut) The original papers in the settlement of Joseph Wilcoxson's estate are said to be on file in the Connecticut State Library at Hartford, File 5717. In 1708, the widow Anna Wilcoxson was still alive because she then petitioned for the custody of her Farnum grandchildren. Prior to that time, in October, 1697, the Connecticut General Assembly at Hartford had passed the following Act:

'Anna Wilcoxson, widow and relict of Joseph Wilcoxson late of Killingworth, deceased, being aggrieved with the Act of the County Court at New London, June 6, 1883, concerning her interest in the reall estate of the said Joseph which act being an abridgement of her just rights according to the lawe, this Court doth declare the same to be void and doe order that the said Anna shall have the one third part of the reall estate of said Joseph according to lawe to be hers during her natural life, ye said act notwithstanding.' (Public records of Connecticut Vol. 4)

It is now pretty well established that Anna, the wife of Joseph Wilcoxson, was a Shailor (also spelled Shaler). There are several allusions to the Shaler family in the earliest Killingworth records. In one place William Wilcoxson is mentioned as heritor of 12 acres 'which were formerly Goodman Shailers', the inference being that the latter was William's grandfather and Anna's father.

If Anna was a Shailor, she comes from good stock. The Shailor family originated in Warwickshire, England, near Stratford-on-Avon. Their first home in America was the Island of Jamaica. However, their residence there must have been brief for Thomas Shailor appears among the first planters of Killingworth. The earliest generations were seafarers, the most notable being Captain William Shailor whose Journal now forms an early California historical source. There was also an Alexander Shaler, 'native of Middlesex County' who rose to the rank of Major General in the Civil War. Nathaniel, Southgate Shaler in his day, was a noted author, educator, and physician.
Joseph Wilcoxson was married to Ann _______ in 1658 in Stratford, Fairfield County Connecticut. Joseph and Ann had eight children
found on ancestry.com