Joel CHAFFE, Jr.

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Name:
Joel Chaffe, Jr., was baptized in the First Congregational Church of Woodstock, May 6, 1733; he was a blacksmith, farmer and miller, in 1801 owning a fulling mill; as early as 1764 he owned property in Wilbraham; March 8, 1768, "Joel Chaffee Blacksmith of Wilbraham" sold to his cousin, Doctor Hezekiah Chaffe, of Windsor, Conn., for L30, ninety acres of land with the swelling house, barn and shop thereon, June 2nd following leasing this same property from Doctor Chaffe at a yearly rental of twenty shillings, the lease being for the term of Joel's life and after his death to be continued while his wife Hepzibah remained his widow; March 11, 1769, Joel Chaffe was chosen Constable of the town of Wilbraham; May 30, 1770, he owned with his wife and others, pew number three in the Congregational Church there, but July 3d of the same year, he and his wife, with five others, occupied pew number fourteen there, May 11, 1772, he was chosen Juror in Wilbraham, and that year bought of Philip Lyon of that place property there for L22; his was one of the one hundred and twenty-five signatures to an agreement made in South Wilbraham in 1774, not to buy English-made goods; in 1776 he was chosen Fence Viewer in Wilbraham, and in December of that year, was one of those elected to the office of "deerreaes"; October 18, 1779, he received $7 as bounty and mileage money for soldiers; March 22, 1786, he was chosen Surveyor; in the fall of that year, during Shays's rebellion, he served as a Private in Lieutenant Lewis Langdon's Company. Colonel Gideon Burt's Regiment of Militia, Fourth Division, who marched to Springfield in support of the Government, service from September 22 to 28, 1786; he bought land in Wilbraham from 1786 to 1799; his will, dated October 5, 1802, gave all his property to his wife, as they had no children; February 8, 1805, she sold land to Comfort Chaffe and may 10, 1808, another piece of land to Doctor Hezekiah Chaffe; both Joel and Hepzibah are buried in the old buryinggound, Hampden (formerly South Wilbraham), his tombstone bearing the following inscription:

"Go home my friends,
Dry up your tears,
I must lie here
till Christ appears."

Joel married Hepzibah GREEN on 3 Dec 1755 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Hepzibah was born about 1735 in Wales, Springfield Twp, Massachusetts; died on 19 Dec 1828. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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...May 26, 1742, Joel Chaffe and others petitioned the General Court in Boston (Woodstock at this time being part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) to be made a separate town with religious privileges, the petitioners living very distant from the First congregational Church in Woodstock and that church being so small that it could not accommodate all those in the parish. Joel Chaffe lived four and a quarter miles from this church. December 11, 1742, Joel sold to Samuel Barnes of Barrington, for L75,seven acres and twenty rods of land in Woodstock. February 9, 1744-5, he sold to his father, for L287, fifty acres of land in the south half of Woodstock, with a dwelling house on it. February 16, 1744-5, he sold to Thomas Allen for L366, another piece of land there. This was his last land transaction, as he died the following summer. His brother Joseph, being appointed October 21, 1745, as administrator of his estate, sold the entire real estate, consisting of seventy-five acres of land, to their brother, John, April 1, 1747. The children received their father's share in their grandfather's estate, August 29, 1754. The estate of their mother was divided among the children in Woodstock, February 2, 1757. Joel Chaffe is thought to have been buried in Woodstock.

Joel married Elizabeth BICKNELL. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas BICKNELL and Ann TURNER) was born in 1715; died before 2 Feb 1757. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Thomas Bicknell of Middleboro, Mass.