Joseph Wise

Butcher, of Roxbury. He was probably the Joseph Wise baptized at Bulkington, Warwickshire, on 17 June 1617 (West, NEHGR 177:141-143, 2023), and by December 1640 he was at Roxbury, a servant named in Dr. George Alcock's will (Anderson, TAG 56). On 3 Dec 1641 he married Mary Tompson at Roxbury.

He made his living in cattle and meat. In 1648 Nicholas Davison wrote to John Winthrop Jr. that he had "agreed with Joseph Wise of Roxburry Butcher for the payment of the fiftey pounds due to mr. Francis Warner of London" (Winthrop Papers 5:264). He bought livestock from Winthrop's new settlement at Pequot (New London): on 4 May 1649 he wrote from "roxby" asking Winthrop to arrange to send his cattle and whether he had any goats to sell, and on 3 Nov 1649 he signed a receipt for "7 beife and 56 goats" and "88 li. of tallo besids" (5:341-342, 375). Roger Williams wrote in 1649 that part of a debt of his had been settled with "six pounds which he paid for me to Joseph Wise the Butcher" (5:313).

He and Mary had twelve children. Two are ancestors of Harriet Low, who descends from Joseph and Mary twice: Mary (bp. 27 Feb 1649/50), wife of Caleb Lamb, and Abigail (b. 20 June 1666), probably theirs, wife of Adam Cogswell. Another son was Rev. John Wise (bp. 15 Aug 1652), minister at Chebacco from 1680, who resisted Andros's taxes in 1687. A third daughter, Katherine (bp. 10 Oct 1658), married Richard Mather of Dorchester in 1680 and is an ancestor on the Hatten side, through the Mathers and Marvins of Lyme.

King Philip's War. Two of his sons served. Jeremiah, "Jeremyah, s. Joseph, bp. July 6, 1646" (Roxbury VR), very probably marched under Capt. Daniel Henchman in November 1675, on the brief march from 2 November to Hassanamesit and Packachoog after the Nipmuc who had carried off the Christian Indians of those towns; "Jeremiah Wise" was credited £1 0s 6d for it on 30 Nov (Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 55). In the fight at Hassanamesit on 9 November, Bodge writes from Henchman's letter, his corporal Abiel Lamb "outran himself in the attack"; Abiel was probably the brother of Caleb Lamb, husband of Joseph's daughter Mary (see Dorothy Harbottle). His son Rev. John Wise, then preaching at Branford, went out as chaplain with Major Treat's Connecticut army on 26 Jan 1675/6.

He died at Roxbury on 12 Sept 1684, without a will, and his widow Mary and son John were granted administration three days later.

Mollie's typescript brings him from the Wises of Sydenham, Devon, on the Bonaventure in 1636, a story with nothing behind it.