Joseph Miles (1703-1762)
Joseph Miles was born 24 Jan 1703 in Derby, CT, son of Stephen Miles. He is my son-in-law’s 7th great-grand-uncle.
Father Stephen was married twice: (1) to Mary Holbrook, and (2) to Patience Wheeler, and had six children. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about who is the mother of which children.
The Barbour index(1) does not list the mother of the children in any of the Derby records. All children are simply listed as son or daughter of Stephen Miles. Mary 24 Aug 1697, Joseph 24 Jan 1703, Patience 20 Sep 1704, Eunice 11 Apr 1707, Stephen 20 Jan 1708, Jestis 27 Jul 1711
Families of Ancient New Haven(2) has all children, except the youngest, Jestis/Justus, as children of the first marriage (dates are supposedly birthdates): Mary 24 Aug 1697, Stephen 20 Jan 1701 or 20 Feb 1701, Joseph 24 Jan 1703, Patience 20 Sep 1704, Eunice 11 Apr 1707, Justus 27 Jul 1711
Milford Church Records(3) lists Stephen and wife Mary admitted to membership in 1697, with Stephen being baptized 21 Nov 1697; Patience Miles, wife of Stephen, admitted to the Milford church on 1 Aug 1703. Children: Mary, daughter of Stephen, bp. 27 Aug 1699, Stephen, son of Stephen bp. 26 Jan 1700, Joseph, son of Stephen bp. 31 Jan 1703, Patience, daughter of Stephen bp. 21 Oct 1705.
Some of the date discrepancies can be explained by birth dates vs. baptismal dates. The main discrepancies are Stephen: 1701 vs 1708; and if Patience Wheeler was admitted to the Milford Church as the wife of Stephen Miles on 1 Aug 1703, his daughter Patience could hardly be the daughter of Mary Holbrook in 1704/5. However, Joseph could be the son of either Mary or Patience, depending when Stephen and Patience actually were married. Neither the death of Mary (Holbrook) Miles nor the marriage of Stephen Miles and Patience Wheeler seems to be recorded. Another twist is old-style dates: Was Joseph’s date Jan 1703 OS (thus now 1704) or a translated date, thus Jan 1702 OS.
And so the puzzles remain!
(1) White, Lorraine Cook. The Barbour collection of Connecticut town vital records. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1994. Derby index, pg. 73 (vol. LR3, pg.1)
(2) Jacobus, Donald Lines. Families of ancient New Haven. Salem, MA: Higginson Book Co., 1922-1930; reprint 1974. New England Historic Genealogy Society, http://www.americanancestors.org/. Vol. 1-2 online at Archive.org.
(3) Records of the First Church of Milford, CT, 1635-1760 (n.p.: n.pub., vol.1, pg. 22. New England Historic Genealogy Society, http://www.americanancestors.org/.
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