Joseph Heath Jr. was born 28 July 1713 in Groton, Connecticut, the second of four children of Joseph and Dorothy Heath of that town.[i] Little is known of his early life, but by age twenty-five he was participating in Groton’s land transactions. On 2 June 1739, Joseph Heath Jr. of Groton purchased from John Seabury Jr. a tract of land for £105, bounded by Seabury’s property and a public road. Witnesses included Joseph Heath (almost certainly his father) and Samuel Seabury.[ii]

By the following year, Joseph Jr. had relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, situated just across Narragansett Bay from Swansea, Massachusetts, the town from which his parents had come before settling in Groton. His early Groton and Newport years tie him to the maritime economy, consistent with his later identification as a mariner. At Trinity Church, Newport, he married Mary Bell, daughter of William and Martha (French) Bell, on 14 September 1740.[iii] Their identification is confirmed by a deed of 18 August 1747, in which Joseph Heath and Mary his wife of Newport conveyed to John Brown of Newport the same Groton tract Joseph Jr. had purchased in 1739. The transaction, recorded the following day, was witnessed by Ebenezer Richardson and Hannah Hayward, both active in Newport parish records during this period, thereby linking Joseph of Groton to the Newport marriage.[iv]

At Trinity Church, two children were baptized on 25 September 1748: William Heath and Mary Heath.[v] Given the absence of other Heath families in the parish register, these baptisms are likely to represent children of Joseph and Mary (Bell) Heath. Their son William Heath (baptized 1748) is very likely William Heath of Groton whose birth year was estimated ca. 1750.

Joseph Heath, Jr.'s mother, Dorothy Heath, died on 24 October 1754 in Groton.  On 3 January 1757, Joseph Heath, Sr., age seventy, married Marcy Tracy.   Groton records show that on 31 May 1768, Marcy (or Mercy) Tracy Heath died.  

Joseph Heath, Jr. remained active in Groton land transactions into the 1750s, sometimes styled “of Newport.” By 3 August 1763, however, a Groton deed styled him “Joseph Heath of Swansea in the Province of Massachusetts Bay,” documenting his relocation to the Swansea/Warren borderlands. In March 1764, Joseph and his wife Mary Heath conveyed to the town selectmen about four acres with a dwelling house in Groton.[vi]

On 14 October 1768, Joseph Heath of Swansea, Mariener (Mariner), purchased land in Warren, Rhode Island, from John Estabrooke for £100. The tract was bounded by lands of Marton, Townsend, Heath, the heirs of Samuel Miller, and Joseph Chace, and included a one-rod cartway across Joseph Allen’s land.[vii] This deed almost certainly belongs to Joseph Heath Jr. and not to his son, Joseph Heath (III), who had married Mary Brown in 1764. Joseph III would have been in his early-to-mid-twenties in 1768 and is unlikely to have possessed the capital required for such a substantial purchase, nor is there evidence that he was already styled “mariner.” By contrast, the occupational title mariner is fully consistent with Joseph Jr.’s earlier Newport associations

Within a year, financial reverses overtook Joseph Heath, Jr. On 8 July 1769, Sheriff Richard Smith sold two acres of Heath’s Warren property at public vendue to James Brown Jr. of Swansea for only £4–12s, satisfying a debt owed to James Brown of Bristol. The nature of the transaction again points to Joseph Jr., since sheriff’s sales typically involved established landholders burdened by debt rather than younger men still starting out. Just two months later, on 16 September 1769, Joseph Heath of Swansea was the subject of a debt judgment in Groton brought by Devotion Eddy for £36:9:0, with costs.[viii] This trio of records (the 1768 Warren purchase, the 1769 sheriff’s sale, and the 1769 Eddy judgment) together document the financial difficulties of Joseph Jr. in his mid- to late fifties.

This is the last certain record of Joseph Heath, Jr. He disappears from the records after September 1769, and his death date remains uncertain. Some genealogists have connected him to a 29 August 1772 Warren deed naming “Mary Heath, widow of Joseph Heath of Swansea,” but the context suggests this deed more likely belonged to his son, Joseph Heath (III), who died by April 1771, leaving Mary (Brown) Heath as his widow.[ix] Witnesses to the 1772 transaction included Elisha Eddy and Michael Eddy, sons of Caleb Eddy of Swansea. Caleb was the brother of Ebenezer Eddy of Swansea, who died in 1748 leaving a widow and several minor children, including a daughter, Mary, who is most likely Mary (Eddy) Culver. Caleb was appointed guardian of his niece Mary and thus played a formative role in her upbringing. Through this guardianship connection, the Heath family’s legal affairs intersected with the same Eddy family whose daughter Mary married Joseph Culver of Groton.

Joseph Heath, Jr. may have died soon after 1769, but the precise date cannot be fixed with existing evidence.  By 1772, his son William Heath was beginning his own family life in Groton. That year William married Mary Culver, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Eddy) Culver, at the First Baptist Church, with Elder Timothy Wightman officiating. This union further reinforced the close interconnections between the Heath, Culver, and Eddy families, kin groups that had long circulated between Swansea, Newport, and Groton.

Children of Joseph and Mary (Bell) Heath

1. Joseph Heath, born about 1741–1746 (based on marriage date), married Mary Brown at Swansea on 19 April 1764.[x] Although the marriage record does not identify his parents, the age, name, and setting strongly indicate he was a son of Joseph Heath, Jr. and Mary (Bell) Heath. His presence in Swansea, adjacent to his mother’s Bell kin, further supports the identification.

2. Mary Heath, baptized 25 September 1748 at Trinity Church, Newport. She was not the Mary Heath who married John Bell in 1769 because Trinity Church records clarify that, "John Bell was a Major in the British army. He went to England with his family, and died at Islington, County of Middlesex, May, 1779. Mrs. Bell, whose maiden name was Mary Grant, daughter of Sueton Grant, was the widow of Andrew Heath. She died in England in 1781." No additional information has been found for her.[xii] 

3. William Heath, baptized 25 September 1748 at Trinity Church, Newport, was very likely William Heath of Groton, born about 1750, who married Mary Culver on 2 August 1772.[xi] The identification is supported by the close alignment in age and by the family’s presence in both Newport and Groton. The Culver family was long established in the Groton area, making it a plausible setting for the marriage connection. This marriage further tied the Heath family to kinship networks rooted in southeastern Connecticut.

4. [Probable additional children] Joseph Heath Jr. and Mary (Bell) Heath married on 14 September 1740, and their last known children, Mary and William, were baptized in 1748. It is possible that other children were born in the 1740s or 1750s whose baptismal records are missing or have not survived.

Heath Land Records from Groton, Connecticut and Warren, Massachusetts, 1739-1772

1739 (June 2): Joseph Heath, Jr. of Groton bought for £ 105 from John Seabury, Jr. --- acres of land bound by the property of John Seabury, Jr. and a road.  Signed by John Seabury, Jr.  Witnessed by Joseph Heath and Samuel Seabury. [FHL Microfilm # 0004294; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 4, page 66.]

1739 (November 24):  Joseph Heath and 12 other men (Capt. Jonathan Stare, Mr. Jonathan Sholes, Capt. Robert Allyn, Esqr. Ralph Stoddard, Thomas Baley, Sergt. Peter Lester, Sergt. John Hurlbut, Mr. Jonathan Williams, James Baley, James Baley, Jr., Joseph Millison, and John Allyn), all of Groton, were granted a small parcel of land in Groton for the use of a school and to be improved for no other use.  The land was bound by Preston Road, the highway that goes from the Old Meeting House in Groton to the Pine Swamp Road, property of James Baley, Jr. and the above-mentioned persons.  Signed by Christopher Avery, Jr.  Witnessed by Luke Perkins and Eunice Perkins. [FHL Microfilm # 0004294; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 4, page 87.]

1745 (July 16): John Heath of Groton bought for £ 345 from Paul Pelton of Groton, 10 acres of land situated in Groton and bounded by Shole's land.  Signed by Paul Pelton.  Witnessed by Christopher Avery and Samuel Avery. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 5, page 19.]

1747 (August 18): Joseph Heath and Mary, his wife of "Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island" sold for £ 200 to John Brown of Newport, -- acres of land in Groton, bounded by the property of John Seabury, Jr.  Signed by Joseph Heath and Mary Heath, Newport, August 19, 1747. Witnessed by Ebenezer Richardson and Hannah Hayward. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 5, page 91.]

1750 (August 29):  John Heath of Groton bought for £ 13 from Ralph Stoddard, Jr. of Groton a small 73-rod parcel of land bounded by the property of Joseph Heath (probably Sr.).  Signed by Ralph Stoddard, Jr.  Witnessed by Christopher Avery, Jr. and William Avery. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 5, page 102.]

1750 (September 29):  Joseph Heath of Groton bought for £ 20 from Samuel and Hannah Hutchinson of Groton 1 ½ acres of land in Groton located near the property of Christopher Avery and the Preston Road.  Signed by Samuel Hutchinson and Hannah Hutchinson.  Witnessed by Christopher Avery, Jr. and Parke Avery. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 5, page 103.]

1754 (October 9): John Heath of Groton sold for £ 7, 10 shillings to Hutchinson Sholes of Groton, a small parcel of land in Groton containing about 30 rods, bounded by the property of John Heath and Hutchinson Sholes. Signed by John Heath.  Witnessed by Christopher Avery and Sarah Avery. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 5, page 163.]

1758 (January 2): Joseph Heath of Groton sold for £ 4 to Christopher Avery, Esq., 1½ acres of land situated in Groton, bounded by Christopher Avery's land near the school house on the southeasterly side of the highway; land of John Heath, and of Ralph Stoddard.  Signed by Joseph Heath.  Witnessed by Jasper Latham and Henry Williams. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 6, page 40.]

1760 (August 2): John Heath of Groton sold for 30 shillings to Christopher Avery of Groton one quarter acre of land in Groton abutting west upon Preston Road and bounded by land of Ralph Stoddard and by Christopher Avery. Signed by John Heath.  Witnessed by Jabez Smith and Joseph Williams, Jr. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 6, page 82.]

1763 (August 3):  John Heath of Groton sold to Joseph Heath of "Swansey in the Provence of the Massachusets Bay in New England aforesaide" for £ 100, ten acres with buildings in Groton bounded by the property of Jesse Baley, Hutchinson Sholes, "or however otherwise Bounded by a Deed of the same from Thomas Pelton to the sd Joseph Heath Recorded in the Records of Groton Refference thereunto being had may Appear Togeather with the Buildings thereon standing or to the same belonging."  Signed by John Heath.  Witnessed by Peter Lester and Christopher Avery. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 6, page 126.]

1768 (October 14): Joseph Heath of Swansea purchased Warren land from John Estabrooke for £100, bounded by familiar neighbors (Marton, Townsend, Miller heirs, Joseph Chace). Estabrook’s wife Frances consented. This was likely an expansion attempt. [FHL Microfilm # 902937; Image Group # 8136060; Warren, Rhode Island Record of Deeds, Volume 2, 1763-1784, page 202, Image 449 of 946]

1769 (July 8): Sheriff’s deed: Two acres of Heath’s Warren land were seized and sold at public auction to James Brown of Swansea for only £4–12s, a massive loss compared to his 1768 outlay. [FHL Microfilm # 902937; Image Group # 8136060; Warren, Rhode Island Record of Deeds, Volume 2, 1763-1784, page 261, Image 481 of 946]

1769 (September 16): Joseph Heath of "Swansey in the Provence of the Massechusits Bay" was served a judgment by Devotion Eddy of Groton for £ 36:9:0 Debt and £ 1:0:11 costs of suit. The record was signed by Daniel Coit, Clerk. [FHL Microfilm # 0004296; Groton Connecticut Land Records, Volume 6, page 17]

1772 (August 29): Mary Heath, widow of Joseph Heath, co-signed with James Brown Jr. to sell two acres in Warren to John Child for £35. This confirms the death of Joseph Heath III before this date and identifies his surviving widow as Mary (Mary Brown). Witnesses included Elisha and Michael Eddy, sons of Caleb Eddy, linking her to Swansea’s Eddy network. [FHL Microfilm # 902937; Image Group # 8136060; Warren, Rhode Island Record of Deeds, Volume 2, 1763-1784, page 351, Image 532 of 946]

End Notes