Josiah Fuller (1729/30-1797)

It has been verified that Josiah Fuller is in our family tree, but it is difficult to know anything very interesting about him or to know anything much about some of his children. Records just weren’t kept, or are no longer available. We have to depend heavily upon compiled records and published genealogies, rather than primary sources, to know anything about Josiah and his family.

Josiah Fuller was born on 23 Feb 1729/30 in Colchester, New London, Connecticut, as the fourth child of Benjamin Fuller and Content Fuller. He had eight siblings, namely: Patience, Matthew, Deborah, Jemima, Benjamin, Jane, Ann, and Elizabeth.

When he was 19, he married Irena Dickinson on 20 Dec 1749 in her hometown of Sharon, Litchfield, Connecticut.

Josiah Fuller and Irena Dickinson had the following children:

1. Irene Fuller was born on 13 Jul 1752 in Connecticut. She died in New York.
2. Varsel Fuller was born on 23 Feb 1755 in Oblong, Amenia, Dutchess, New York. He married Mary Crowell on 17 Jun 1776 in Stillwater, Saratoga, New York. Varsel served in the Revolutionary War as a non-commissioned officer. He achieved the rank of Orderly Sergeant. He died on 27 Aug 1834 in Fort Edward, Washington, New York.
3. Mary Fuller was born on 03 May 1757 in Amenia, Dutchess, New York. She died 26 May 1844 at Cohocton, Steuben, New York.
4. Roseanna Fuller was born on 16 May 1759 in Amenia, Dutchess, New York. She married Daniel Spike in 1780 in Saratoga, Saratoga, New York. She died on 26 May 1844 in Cohocton, Steuben, New York.
5. Josiah Fuller was born on 17 Oct 1763 in Amenia, Dutchess, New York. He married Susan Heath in 1790 in Hadley, Saratoga, New York. He married Sally Rockwell in 1815 in New York. He died after Mar 1833.
6. Jeduthan Fuller was born on 05 Sep 1765 in Oblong, Dutchess, New York.  He married Ruth in 1789 in Connecticut. He died after 1840 in Ontario, New York (Probably Naples, Ontario County).
7. Rufus Fuller was born on 30 Oct 1767 in Amenia, Dutchess, New York.
8. Joseph Fuller was born in 1776 in New York.

Early in their marriage, Josiah and Irena moved their family to Oblong, Dutchess County, New York. The “oblong” was a strip of disputed territory between Dutchess County, New York, and the Connecticut border. The oblong was 1 3/4 miles wide and extended from the Massachusetts line to Westchester County, New York. This strip of land was settled earlier than other parts of the New York territory because land was being sold there instead of leased to settlers.

The first Provincial Congress of New York met 22 May 1775 to device measures for general safety and to authorize recruiting men for the Revolutionary War. One of the first duties of the committee put together in Dutchess County, New York where the Fuller family lived, was to visit the Tories in the county, and request in a friendly manner that they surrender their firearms for the use of the Continental forces, at a reasonable price. In case of refusal the firearms were taken forcibly. The committee collected 431 such guns. Four regiments of the Continental Army were organized as well. Josiah and Irena Fuller saw at least one of their sons go to war.

Though the British held New York for a while during the war, Dutchess County was never invaded by the British. In population and taxable wealth, it exceeded the other counties of the state, so it furnished a large proportion of the army provisions.

At some point, Josiah and Irena returned across the border to Connecticut. Josiah Fuller died on 27 Aug 1797 in Coventry, Tolland, Connecticut. He was buried at Nathan Hale Cemetery, Coventry, Tolland, Connecticut.

Where is he in the tree?

Sources:

Ancestry.com, Connecticut, Deaths and Burials Index, 1650-1934 (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data – “Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772–1934.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled.

Ancestry.com, Connecticut, Hale Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data – The Charles R. Hale Collection. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut State Library.Original data: The Charles R. Hale Collection. Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com, Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data – White, Lorraine Cook, ed. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002.Original data: White, Lorr).

Ancestry.com, Connecticut Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006), www.ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), ancestry.com, Book Title: Genealogy of some descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower.

Fairman, John and Joanne, Fuller, From The Mayflower…To Michigan, http://www.jowest.net/Genealogy/Jo/Fuller/Fuller.htm (http://www.jowest.net/Genealogy/Jo/Fuller/Fuller.htm), http://www.jowest.net/Genealogy/Jo/Fuller/Fuller.htm,

Find A Grave, findagrave.com, Memorials: 22215048, 88086821

Fuller, William Hyslop, Genealogy of some descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower [ancestry / GoogleBooks] (Palmer, Mass.?: unknown, 1908), ancestry.com; google books, pp. 50, 248.

Hasbrouck, Frank, ed., “The History of Dutchess County New York,” (S.A. Matthieu: Poughkeepsie, 1909), archive.org. Web, 19 Feb 2017,  http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028853327 (also available via Google Books:  https://books.google.com/books?id=hsYpAQAAMAAJ)

New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record [GoogleBooks] (New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1906), google Books: books.google.com, Volume XXXIV., 1903, p. 21.

Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (New York, The National Archives, 1776), https://www.fold3.com, Varsel Fuller. https://www.fold3.com/image/1/20175221?xid=1945.