Josiah Sears

1708 - 1772  (63 years)

• Name	Josiah Sears  [1, 2]
  Birth	25 Aug 1708	Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [3, 4, 5, 6]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate death	Jan 1772	Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [5]
  Death	Between 2 Jan 1772 and 11 Feb 1772	Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [7]
  Person ID	I20209	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of LDN
  Last Modified	5 Sep 2019

  
  

  Father	Josiah Sears,   b. Abt 1675, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. 1727, Provincetown, Barnstable, Massachusetts (Age ~ 52 years)
  Mother	Mercy Howes   d. 1720
  Marriage	3 Apr 1702	Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [5, 6]
  Family ID	F12146	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Azuba Knowles,   b. 6 Feb 1714, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. Mar 1762, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts (Age 48 years)
  Marriage	30 Sep 1736	Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [3, 5, 6]
  Children	+ 1. Josiah Sears,   b. 1 Feb 1745, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. 27 Jul 1819, Barrington, Shelburne, Nova Scotia (Age 74 years) + 2. Azuba Sears,   b. 5 Nov 1747, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. 1839, Barrington, Shelburne, Nova Scotia (Age 91 years)
  Family ID	F12136	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Sep 2019

  
  

• Notes

  He was a cordwainer. As of 16 Dec 2018, ancestry.com's transcription of the record of his will and probate erroneously calls 2 Jan 1772 the date of his probate. But the eighteenth-century probate record that ancestry.com links to -- a piece of handwriting so elegantly legible it could be read from outer space -- clearly says that Josiah Sears made his will on 2 Jan 1772 and that it was probated the following 11 Feb. Whenever possible, always look at the original documents!

  
  

• Sources

  [S2572] A History of Barrington Township and Vicinity, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia 1604-1870, with a Biographical and Genealogical Appendix by Edwin Crowell. Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 1923. [S2571] Genealogical Notes of Cape Cod Families by Lydia B. Brownson, Grace W. Held, and Doris V. Norton. Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1966. Handwritten manuscript on Archive.org. [S2598] Charles Thornton Libby, "The Knowles Family of Eastham, Mass." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 79:286, 1925; 79:379, 1925; 80:6, 1926; 80:119, 1926. [S5174] Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, on ancestry.com. [S2095] The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, 1638-1888 by Samuel P. May. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1890. [S3449] New Englanders in Nova Scotia, manuscript and collection of articles and research material, including articles written by Fred E. Crowell in the 1920s and 30s for the Yarmouth Herald, and also Crowell's research notes. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Searchable at americanancestors.org. [S2624] Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, on ancestry.com.