Joseph Kingsbury (c. 1600–1676) was an early settler and selectman from

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a New England town, town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. First settled by E ...

Personal life

Kingsbury was born in

Boxford, Suffolk Boxford is a village and civil parish in the Babergh District, Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around six miles east of Sudbury, Suffolk, Sudbury straddling the River Box and skirted by the Holbrook. The parish includes the hamle ...

to John Kingsbury. He traveled to Massachusetts in the early 1630s with his younger brother, John Kingsbury, and his wife Millicent, whom he married in Boxford in 1628. He had a daughter, Sarah, born in 1635. Their second daughter, Mary, was the second child ever born in Dedham on September 1, 1637. Their third child, Elizabeth, was born in 1638. Four boys then followed, including Joseph, born 1640, John, born in 1643, Eleazer, born in 1645, and Nathaniel, born in 1650.

Dedham

Kingsbury was one of the ten men who were selected to seek out the "living stones" upon which

First Church and Parish in Dedham The First Church and Parish in Dedham is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was the 14th church established in Massachusetts. The current minister, Rev. Rali M. Weaver, was called in March 2007, settled in July, and ...

would be founded. He was found to be "stiff" and "too much addicted to the world," however, and was not selected to be a founding member in 1638. He was later admitted in 1641. Some sources suggest he was displeased with the church after giving the church a valuable plot of land and receiving swamp land in return. The first portion of the

Old Village Cemetery The Old Village Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts. History The first portion of the cemetery was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18, 1636, with land taken from Nicholas Phillips ...

was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18, 1636, with land taken from Kingsbury and Nicholas Phillips. He signed the

Dedham Covenant The Dedham Covenant was a covenant that governed the early settlement of Dedham, Massachusetts. It mandated that only those with similar, Puritan, community values could live in the town and set about a method for mediating disputes. It also requ ...

. He died in 1676.

References

Works cited

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsbury, Joseph Dedham, Massachusetts selectmen Signers of the Dedham Covenant 1600s births 1676 deaths People from Boxford, Suffolk Emigrants from the Kingdom of England to the Thirteen Colonies People from colonial Massachusetts Immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies