Joseph Langworthy

According to the vital records of Little Compton, Joseph Langworthy was born May 10, 1710, the son of Andrew Langworthy of Little Compton.

His father died around 1720.

In 1722 his mother Patience, the daughter of Robert Brownell of Little Compton, married John Sanford, a widower, who also had a family by his previous marriage.

Around 1723 John and Patience moved with their families to Stonington, CT, and Joseph seems to have settled there: - In August, 1728 he was Joseph Langworthy of Stonington in a legal action. - The vital records of Stonington say he had five children born there between Feb 1729 and Jan 1742. - In Nov 1742, as Joseph Langworthy of Stonington, he sold rights to land in Little Compton that had come to him from his grandfather, Robert Brownell.

Unlike his older brother Thomas, Joseph doesn’t appear to have held land in Stonington. The land records of Stonington show many transactions involving John and Patience Sanford and Thomas Langworthy and his children, but Joseph and his sons do not appear at all.

In the 1742 deed, Joseph refers to himself as “Joseph Langworthy of Stonington In ye County of New London In ye Colony of Conecticut In New engd Cordwainer”. This implies that he made his living by making and selling leather goods, perhaps like shoes or boots.

It’s likely that his sons Robert, Joseph and Andrew were also tradesmen in their early years - they clearly didn’t inherit any land and this has made it difficult to trace their movement across Connecticut to western Massachusetts, Vermont and New York.

The last record certain record of Joseph Langworthy is the deed he signed in 1742, but it’s likely that he lived longer than that:

• There are records of two different Joseph Langworthys in the years around 1770. The only plausible candidates are Joseph (1710) and his son, Joseph (1735).
• One Joseph lived in Plainfield, CT until about 1768 and then moved to Preston, CT, where he lived until about 1778. These dates are a good fit to Joseph (1735).
• The second Joseph was among the original settlers of Colebrook, CT, where he arrived in 1771. He owned land there and was gone by 1780. It seems likely that this was Joseph (1710), probably accompanied by some of his sons, who show up in Massachusetts, New York and Vermont in the 1790 Federal census.