vital records sources
go to Elizabeth Vinton's page

Joseph's signature on a Samuel Vinton heirs agreement

(a note: Joseph Man of Braintree didn't marry or intend to marry Bethiah Torrey. This couple published their intentions to marry in Boston on 20 October 1748.1 Joseph was a baker in Boston, and they were still a couple when her father died in 1769.)

     When he was about 15, Joseph moved with his parents and siblings from Boston to the "South Precinct" of Braintree about 1737. This is now the town of Randolph. They settled on a farm at the junction of what is now Oak and North Main Streets at the south end of Great Pond. Joseph married about 1754 to Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Vinton, a gentleman farmer also of the South Precinct. This surely happened at the Braintree South Parish church, the records for which were very poorly kept, so there is no record of it.
     Joseph isn't known to have bought a home or land of his own. He may be in whatever records exist records for the South Precinct, which were also poorly kept. What Joseph did have was by way of what Elizabeth inherited from her first husband, Peter Niles, and from her father and mother. Niles died in 1752, but her dower wasn't set off until 1763.2 She shared the Niles real estate with her daughter Elizabeth Niles, her only child with Peter. The estate, part of which had been sold to pay debts, consisted of a house, barn, a quarter acre of land on which they stood on the south side of a "town way" and twenty four acres on the north side. Later deeds show this is what is now Liberty Street, and what is now North Street was the easter boundary. Elizabeth, Jr.'s, share isn't designated, but she must have gotten the other halves of the house and barn. When Elizabeth, Sr., died in 1817, her daughter and husband Ichabod Holbrook ended up with the ownership of the home and homestead and sold it to their son Jason in 1819, the deed for which says he had built his own house on the land.3 A publication celebrating Randolph's centennial described this spot as the homestead of Peter's father John Niles, which is corroborated in a deed from John to Peter in 1744.4 He gave Peter his real estate, being sixty acres without further description. Peter's inventory itemizes fifty six acres in the homestead and four acres of fresh meadow.
     Joseph and Elizabeth may have lived in the Niles house after they married and raised their children there. Jason Holbrook is said to have built his house on this property near or on the site of the Niles house,5 and as said above, it was already built when his parents sold him the land. There is an old house still standing there that, despite some alterations, is plausibly from this period. Elizabeth Niles married Ichabod Holbrook, and since they controlled the The family may have waited until Elizabeth died to replace the Niles house. The heirs eventually sold all their shares to Jasona
     From the estate of Samuel Vinton, Elizabeth's father, Joseph and Elizabeth were given nine and a half acres of the homestead land.6 Although there is no recorded deed for it, they apparently sold it to Elizabeth's brother-in-law Seth Turner. An interesting deed is from Seth Turner and his wife Rebecca specifically to Elizabeth in 1765, selling her half the Vinton house and barn, which the Turners had as their share of the Vinton estate.7 When Elizabeth's mother died, her dower was divided in 1770.8 Elizabeth, Jr., but not Joseph, was given the 4 acres the house and barn sat on, and the Turners got the other half of the house and barn, making them co-owners with Elizabeth. I haven't found a record of her or the Turners selling this property. It wasn't obviously a part of Elizabeth (Vinton) Man's estate in 1817.
     Only Joseph and Elizabeth's daughter Ruth is recorded as a child of Joseph and Elizabeth. She was baptized at the Braintree South Parish church.9 The other children were likely baptized there as well, but the church records were very poorly kept. Neither Joseph nor Elizabeth (as wife of Peter Niles, her first husband, or Joseph) are shown to have joined the church, but the admission records may be incomplete.
     Joseph, Hannah (Man) (Littlefield) Reed and Phebe (Man) Whitcomb were certainly other children of this couple, and their half-sister and Elizabeth (Niles) Holbrook was an heir to Elizabeth (Vinton) Man's dower. Joseph petitioned the court to have a guardian appointed for his mother in 1804.10 He and Hannah petitioned the probate court in 1820 to have their shares of their mother's real estate formalized.11 They had one fifth shares of the estate, and the other shareholders were "unknown." This is very strange. Joseph, Ruth (Man) Holbrook and Elizabeth (Niles) Holbrook all lived in Randolph. Hannah Reed lived not far away in Bridgewater. Phebe Whitcomb lived in New Hampshire and although it's possible they lost contact with her, she somehow knew her mother had died and sold her share the same year Joseph and Hannah petitioned the court.12 There is no record of the other heirs having a formally designated share. Elizabeth and Ruth sold their shares in 1819,13 Joseph sold his in 182014 and Hannah sold hers in 1821.15 There's no evidence of any other siblings.
     Joseph died between 2 August 1790, when the 1790 census was taken and included Joseph and Joseph, Jr., in Braintree16 and 28 December 1797, when Joseph, Jr., sold land without the "Jr." suffix, but which he bought with the suffix in 1790.17 Norfolk 8:42 Elizabeth appears as an occupier of land owned by Ichabod Holbrook, according the 1798 Massachusetts Direct Tax.18 She doesn't appear as co-owner, suggesting she sold her dower interest in the Niles estate to the Holbrooks by an unrecorded deed.

children of Joseph Man and Elizabeth Vinton:

i. Ruth, b. 9 March 175619, bap. 14 March 1756, Randolph
ii. Hannah, b. abt. 1758 (m. 1. Moses Littlefield, Jr., 3 April 1777,20 m. 2. Ezekiel Reed, 21)
iii. Joseph, b. 22 June 176022
iv. Phebe, b. abt. 176223

vital records sources: Joseph's birth is in Vital records of Scituate, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 1 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1909), 242. His intentions to marry Ruth were entered with the town clerk, this was prior to being published, see Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Randolph, MA: 1886), 882.

1. A report of the Record Commissioners of the city of Boston: containing Boston marriages from 1700 to 1751 (Boston: 1898), 289.
2. 23 March 1763, Suffolk Co., MA, probate case 10056.
3. Suffolk Co., MA, deed 61:73.
4. Ibid, 85:35.
5. Beal, John V., Randolph's Centennial Celebration, (Randolph, MA: 1897), 190.
6. Suffolk Co., MA, probate case 11313.
7. Suffolk Co., MA, deed 105:5.
8. Suffolk Co., MA, probate case 14750.
9. "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," ancestry.com database online (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), Randolph, "Births, Marriages and Death," image 381.
10. Norfolk Co., MA, probate case 12184.
11. Norfolk Co., MA, Court of Common Pleas records, 18:12.
12. Norfolk Co,, MA, deed 75:29.
13. Ibid, 62:14, 61:73.
14. Ibid, 65:15.
15. Ibid, 75:28.
16. Joseph Man household, US Federal census, 1790, Suffolk, Braintree, Massachusetts, NARA microfilm M637, roll 4, p. 94. Joseph Man, Jr., is on the same page, and the two households are bracketed, indicating they were in one house.
17. Suffolk Co., MA, deed 167:127, Norfolk Co., MA, deed 8:42.
18. an index and images of this tax are at americanancestors.com.
19. from an unpublished manuscript on the Holbrook family by Albert Holbrook (Ruth's great grandson), Rhode Island Historical Society. Images from this are at the Rhode Island genweb site, the pertinent page here: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/holbrook07.jpg
20. Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Randolph, MA: 1886), 880.
21. Vital records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 vol. 2 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1916), 317. 22. Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Randolph, MA: 1886), 850.
23. There are marriage intentions and a marriage for Phebe Man/Mann in the Briantree vital records. The first are intentions to marry John "Slone" in 1778 (Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Randolph, MA: 1886), 881) which fits reasonably in the time frame of Joseph and Elizabeth having children if she was in her later teens. It's possible the marriage didn't take place, since no evidence was found for such a couple. The marriage was in 1788 to Noah Whitcomb, and Noah and Phebe were involved in the Mann estate. Intentions 20 October 1788, m. Stoughton 3 Mar 1789 (Braintree Records, 861).