Joshua Wixon b. 1695 Eastham, MA and Hannah Baker

I don’t have a tremendous amount of information on Joshua Wixon, who is my 7^th great grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family, but thought I would share what I have thus far.

Joshua was born at Eastham, Mass. on 14 March 1694/95, the son of Barnabas and Sarah (Remick) Wixon. His last name is spelled in multiple ways including Wickson, Wixson, Wixam and Wixom.

Joshua married, first, Hannah Baker on 9 March 1714/15 in Yarmouth. They were married by Peter Thacher, Justice of the Peace. Hannah was born 1696 in Yarmouth, the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Chase) Baker. Only the year of her birth is given in the Yarmouth Vital Records. Hannah was about 19 years old at marriage and Joshua was almost 20.

Joshua and Hannah had a son, Reuben, born in 1717. I descend from Reuben who married Dorcas Chase. I wrote about that couple here.

I have seen other researchers attribute additional children to the couple: Hannah, Daniel, David, Robert and James, but I do not know the source for these children and would appreciate hearing from someone who knows more.

Hannah Wixon, the wife of Joshua Wixon, died 27 November 1730 in Yarmouth (Yarmouth VR).

In December 1731, probably at Yarmouth, Joshua married Elizabeth Chase. Their marriage intentions were published at Yarmouth on 4 Dec 1731. The intention of marriage between “Joshua Wixson of yarmouth and Elezebeth Chase of Harwich” was recorded at Harwich on 18 December 1731.

Elizabeth was born 13 December 1718, Yarmouth, the daughter of William and Dorcas (Baker) Chase. Her birth is from Yarmouth VR but the William Chase article noted below has her birth as 6 October 1718.

Joshua and Elizabeth had seven children, whose births were recorded in Yarmouth Vital Records: Isabel, Zilpha, Barnabas, Sarah, Dorcas, Joshua, and Solomon.

Joshua Wixon of Harwich petitioned for relief from the ministerial tax as a Newlight or Separatist with 30 others. It was presented to the General Court in June 1749. Joshua Wixon, Elizabeth Wixon and Isabele Wixon were listed as members of Rev. Joshua Nickerson's Newlight Church in Harwich in February 1749. The Newlighters, generally called Baptists,  embraced the revivals that spread through the colonies during the First Great Awakening in the mid 1700s. Rev. Jonathan Edwards was concerned with New Englanders preoccupation with wordly wealth.

Beginning in 1749, in what is now Dennis, Mass., Joshua Wixam was a Representative to the Court for two years and a Selectman for five years.

Joshua witnessed Silas Baker’s 26 May 1751 will, written in Yarmouth.

I have read that Joshua, Elizabeth and their children became Quakers and removed to the Oblong, now a part of Putnam Co., New York, but I don’t have a source for this. If they did move there, it would explain the lack of information on their deaths as it's referred to as a "black hole" for records.

Map showing the location of the Oblong

Elizabeth was mentioned in her father William Chase’s September 1771 will as Elizabeth Wixom.

 

Sources Not Listed Above:

George Walter Chamberlain, complier for John Carroll Chase, NEHGR January 1933, Some of the Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth, Mass.

CW Swift, Publisher, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, The Baker Family of Yarmouth, Descendants of Francis, No. 73, 1912

Josiah Paine, A History of Harwich, 1937