Colonel Joseph Mayo

     Colonel Joseph Mayo was born on 24 January 1747/48 at Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was a twin.^1,2,3,4,5 He was the son of Major Joseph Mayo and Esther Kenrick.¹ Colonel Joseph Mayo was christened on 30 January 1749 at Roxbury, Massachusetts.^1,5

Colonel Joseph Mayo, age 24, married Lucy Richards, age 19 , daughter of Nathaniel Richards and Mary Whiting, on 12 March 1772 at Roxbury, Massachusetts.



Joseph and Lucymoved to Warwick, Massachusetts, in 1772.¹ On the 17th of September 1774, "Joseph Mayo, constable of said town, was directed forthwith to notify the inhabitants thereof to assemble on the 19th instant at three o'clock in the afternoon, to see if the town will vote to choose delegates to represent them in a county congress, to be convened at Northampton on the 22d instant, at nine o'clock in the morning ; also to see if the town will act any thing respecting our public affairs, and choose such committee or committees, and give them instructions as they shall think proper at said meeting."⁶ On 20 April 1775, then Sergeant Joseph Mayo marched to Lexington with Captain Eldad Wright's company of minutemen. He later marched with Ethen Allen to Fort Ticonderoga, and was placed in charge of that fort by Ethen Allen.⁷ On 23 April 1776 he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in Captain Peter Proctor's 11th Company in the 6th New Hampshire Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia.^1,8 He was involved in Shay's Rebellion, and this story was told by his son, Joseph: "My father was Colonel of the First Regiment in General Shepard's Brigade when General Shay raised an army of 2,000 or 3,000 men in rebellion against the State laws and turned the Court out of doors. My father was sent with a regiment to Springfield to guard the stores on the hill, the guns and ammunition. Soon (2 Jan 1787) they attempted to march up the hill and General Shepard being there in person, gave orders to my father to fire from the artillery over their heads, then to the right, then to the left, all of which did not check them. He then cried "Give it to them in front, my boys" and then they fired a grist of grape straight among them which scattered them like sheep, made them run and scale the walls, killing three or four, and wounded as many more, and they took to the State of Vermont as fast as possible, past my father's house, and filled it full from top to bottom."¹ In 1805 he was an Inn Holder in Warwick, Massachusetts.¹ Joseph and Lucymoved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1806.^1,8 Joseph and Lucymoved to Orwell, Vermont, between 1809 and 1810.^2,8 Colonel Joseph Mayo died on 19 April 1817 at Orwell, Vermont, at age 69 from typhus fever.^1,2,9 He was buried at North Cemetery, Orwell, Vermont. Joseph's epitaph reads: