Moses Johnson

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MOSES JOHNSON (1711–by 1756), son of Lieutenant Joseph Johnson and Lydia Twitchell

SABILLA PLYMPTON (1712–aft. 1777), daughter of Jeremiah Plympton and Elizabeth Johnson

Moses Johnson, the son of Joseph and Lydia, was born on 18 November 1711 in Sherborn, Middlesex County Massachusetts. [1, 51] He died by 1756. Moses of Holliston married Sabilla Plympton of Sherborn on 18 May 1732 in Holliston, Middlesex County. [2, 227][1, 143]

According to Johnson and Johnson, Sabilla is the daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Plympton. [4, 35] A search for women in New England at the time named Sabilla Plympton yields only one: Sibbilath, the daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Plimpton, born 20 August 1712 in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. [5] Based on her unusual name, it is tempting to conclude that the Sabilla who married Moses Johnson is indeed the daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth. Sabilla died after 9 October 1777.

Moses Johnson was a selectman of Holliston in 1749. [4]

Moses Johnson, yeoman, died intestate. On 22 March 1756 Sybil Johnson, widow of Sherborn, Isaac Johnson, yeoman, and Daniel Mellon, posted bond on his estate and his widow was granted administration. On 22 March 1756 Sybil Johnson of Sherborn, widow, [her brother-in-law] Isaac Johnson, yeoman, and Daniel Mellon, yeoman, posted bond for the guardianship of Lydia, Mary, Anna, Asa, Ithamar, and Nathan, the children of Moses Johnson, late of Sherborn. As a minor over 14, Moses chose Isaac Johnson as his guardian, and on the same day, Isaac and Daniel Mellon posted bond. [6]

"Sibbelah Johnson, spinster" bought land in Dublin, Chesher county, New Hampshire from Moses Johnson on 29 June 1776. She sold it to Simeon Johnson on 9 October 1777. [7]

Children of Moses Johnson and Sabilla Plympton: Births of the first ten recorded in Holliston as the children of Moses and Sabilla [2, 84–86]

i. Simeon Johnson was born on 22 June 1733. He married Elizabeth Gardner on 19 August 1756 in Holliston. [2, 22] Elizabeth was probably the daughter of Addington and Mary (Bryant) Gardner, born on 9 March 1737/8 in Sherborn. [1, 39, 130] He probably married second Elizabeth Stone. Elizabeth, the daughter of Silas Stone and Elizabeth Russell and the granddaughter of Ebenezer and Prudence (Pratt) Stone and Jonathan and Mary (Coolidge) Russell, was born on 21 October 1753. [7]

Simeon and [his brother] Moses are on a 1771 tax list in Dublin. [7]

Simeon Johnson bought land in Dublin from Sabilla Johnson, probably his mother, on 9 October 1777. [7]

Simeon moved to Keene, Ohio. [7]

ii. Sabilla Johnson was born on 4 October 1734. Sibbel, the widow of Captain Marshall, died of consumption on 18 June 1795, age 6 [illegible], in Holliston. [2, 334] She married Benjamin Marshall on 28 September 1756 in Holliston. [2, 227] He died in 1777.

Benjamin Marshall of Holliston was the Sergeant Major of Captain John Stone's (Holliston) company of militia which marched on the Alarm of 19 April 1775 to Roxbury. He was credited with 14 days service. Captain Benjamin Marshall was on a 12 June 1777 list of the chosen officers of the eighth (Holliston) company, Samuel Bullard's fifth Middlesex regiment of Massachusetts militia. He probably died before 22 July 1777, when he had been replaced by Captain Samuel Burbank. [8]

Inventory was taken on Benjamin Marshall's estate on 19 September 1777. It amounted to £467 - 17 - 05. Sibel Marshall, widow, John Leland, gentleman, and Joseph Hemmenway, yeoman, all of Holliston, posted bond on the estate of Benjamin Marshall, gentleman of Holliston, on 23 September 1777. [6]

iii. Elizabeth Johnson was born on 24 October 1736. She married Micah Morse on 17 May 1764 in Holliston. [2, 226] Micah is probably the son of Paul and Sarah Morse, born on 25 June 1729 in Holliston. [2, 112] He probably married first Mary Fairbank on 5 November 1752. [2, 247] Mary is probably the daughter of George Fairbank, baptized on 10 October 1731 in Holliston. [2, 58]

iv. Moses Johnson was born on 5 October 1738.

Moses went to Dublin and worked on the roads there in 1764 and 1765. He purchased land there in 1766. [7] He sold his farm to Sabilla Johnson, probably his mother, on 29 June 1776. [7]

Moses was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a private in Colonel Stark's regiment at Medford on 4 Oct 1775 and also appears on the rosters of Captain John Mellen's company and Captain Samuel Twitchell's company in the Rhode Island Expedition in August 1778. [7]

v. Zedekiah Johnson was born on 5 December 1740. Zedekiah, the son of Moses and Sabillah, died on 5 July 1745 in Holliston. [2, 325]

vi. Lydia Johnson was born on 15 September 1742. She died on 30 or 31 May 1817 in Hopkinton. She married Reuben Johnson.

vii. Mary Johnson was born on 24 February 1744/5. Mary and Asa Fisk, Jr., published their intention to marry on 24 June 1766 in Holliston, but they "Did Not Marry." [2, 226] Instead, Asa married Mercy Jones after 8 May 1771 (intention) in Holliston. [2, 207] She is said to have married Timothy ___. [3]

On 6 September 1766 Mary gave birth to Asa Fisk, Jr., the "reputed" son of Asa Fisk, in Holliston. [2, 61]

viii. Anna Johnson was born on 20 July 1747. Anna Johnson married Silas Pratt on 25 May 1772 in Holliston. [2, 225] Silas might be the son of David Pratt, born on 26 September 1747 in Framingham. [9, 165]

ix. Asa Johnson was born on 9 September 1749. Asa of Hopkinton married Hannah Mellen on 2 July 1778 in Holliston. [2, 226]

On 4 January 1766 Asa and Ithamar Johnson, children of Moses Johnson of Holliston, deceased, were allowed their choice of [their uncle] Mr. Isaac Johnson, yeoman of Holliston—"a gentleman suitable for such a trust"—as guardian. [6]

Asa Johnson of Holliston was a corporal in Captain John Leland's company of Minute Men, Colonel Abijah Pierce's Regiment, who marched to Cambridge on the Alarm of 19 April 1775. He was credited with 14 days service. [8]

x. Ithamar Johnson was born on 10 January 1752.

Ithamar—credited to Dublin—was in Captain Jacob Miller's company, Colonel Ephraim Doolittle's regiment at Winter Hill on 6 October 1775. [7] He was on a Dublin tax list in 1773. [7]

xi. Nathan Johnson was baptized as the son of Moses on 25 August 1754. He died on 28 August 1819, age 64, in Sherborn. [1, 208] He married Hannah Leland on 8 October 1778 in Sherborn. [1, 208] Hannah might be the daughter of Caleb and Judah (Morse) Leland, born on 17 May 1757 in Sherborn. [1, 55, 146] Hannah, the wife of Nathan, died on 18 March 1822 in Sherborn. [1, 208]

Nathan and Hannah are buried in the South Sherborn Cemetery in Sherborn. [10]

Endnotes:

1. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Sherborn, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1911).

2. Vital Records of Holliston, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1908).

3. Johnson, Paul Franklin and Frank Leonard Johnson, Genealogy of Capt. John Johnson of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Commonwealth Press, Los Angeles, 1951.

4. Abner Morse, Genealogical Register of the Inhabitant of ... Sherborn and Holliston (Boston: Damrell & Moore, 1856). This is not a completely reliable source. Benjamin Parker Richardson, Jr. remarks on the "low repute of the work of Rev. Abner Morse." [The American Genealogist 53: 38]

5. "Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630–1870," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Canterbury, 133.

6. "Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, cases 12731–12733 (Moses), case 14688 (Benjamin Marshall), case 12736 (Asa and Ithamar].

7. Levi W. Leonard and Josiah L. Seward, The History of Dublin, New Hampshire (Dublin: the town, 1920), 181–2, 906.

8. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vols. 5, 8, 10 (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1899, 1901, 1902), vol. 5: 148; vol. 10: 257.

9. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Framingham, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850 (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1911).

10. Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 21 September 2023), memorial page for Nathan Johnson (1754–28 Aug 1819), Memorial ID 181227282, citing South Sherborn Cemetery, Sherborn, Middlesex County, MA; Maintained by SCC (contributor 48705959).

21-Sep-2023 6:20 PM