"A rascally Tory"

Captain Josiah Edson, born about 1683, married Sarah, daughter of Zaccheus Packard the elder, my seventh great-grandfather.  He was in possession a goodly portion of the estate of his uncle Josiah, for whom he was apparently named.(1)

Captain Josiah and Sarah had seven children:  Sarah (1705), Abiah (1706), Josiah (24 Jan. 1709), Huldah (1713), Abiezer (1715), Freelove (1718), Elijah (1720).

Their son Josiah, known as Colonel Josiah Edson, was "a very distinguished man before the Revolution, Justice of the peace, Deacon of the church, and Col. of the regiment of militia and representative of the town."(2)  But right before Bunker Hill, he slipped a cog and became "a rascally Tory."  He went over to the British, taking refuge in one of their camps.  He was with the British at Long Island, and died there in 1776.  Under an act of the General Court in 1778, Colonel Josiah's lands were confiscated and he became the only person in Bridgewater whose disloyalty caused his lands to be taken under that act, for his having gone over to the enemy side.

He was a black sheep, if ever there was one.  I maintain that it is the black sheep of our families who make our genealogical inquiries interesting, however much we may deplore the behavior that earned them that title. 

(1) Nahum Mitchell, History of the Settlement of  Bridgewater, in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Including an Extensive Family Register.  (Boston: Kidder & Wright, 1840), 152.

(2) Recopied Bridgewater town record, Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryuicontent/view/10890485:2495?ssrc=pt&tid=12481845&pid=132366600143 (accessed 16 March 2022).  [The quoted entry appears below the list of Captain Josiah's children with Sarah Packard.]