Fifth Generation

511. Josiah LEONARD^29,91 was born on 27 March 1750 in Springfield, Hampden Co., MA. He died on 9 November 1817 at the age of 67 in Kingsborough (Johnston), Fulton Co., NY. He was buried in Old Colonial Cemetery, Kingsborough (now Johnston), Fulton Co., NY. He was baptized 6 May 1750 in West Springfield. He and his wife Elizabeth were taken in to the Fifth Church of Christ in Springfield 11 Dec 1774.

Constance Leonard's genealogy of the Leonard family, composed during her lifetime (1785-1855), has this Josiah marrying Elizabeth Hilliard 1 May 1772, as does Thomas B. Warren's Springfield Families.

Their first children were born in Springfield. Sometime after the Revolutionary War, they removed away. In 1793 they settled in Kingsborough, NY, then a newly settled region, where they passed their remaining days. It was later known as Johnstown, NY, and Gloversville, NY.

He served in 1780 as a private in Capt. Jacob Pool's company, Col. Jacob's Massachusetts regiment. DAR Patriot Index. He was also a police constable in Becket, MA.

Will of Josiah Leonard of Johnstown, will dated 30 April 1816, probated 1-13-1818. Mentions wife Elizabeth; daughters Betsy, Miriam and Luna; sons Rufus, Reuben, Josiah, Daniel, Abner, and Harvey. Executors: sons Josiah, Daniel, and Abner.

He was in his 68th year when he died.

"History of Gloversville, NY" by Horace Sprague has further information about Josiah, Daniel, and Abner, according to Lois Badger, "The Leonard Dictionary." She has Josiah born in 1716-18 and married to Elizabeth Harris. Sprague's book: "The Leonards constitute one of the most numerous and most respectable family connections of the first inhabitants of Kingsboro. The present families are descendants of some of the following six brothers: Rufus, Reuben, Josiah, Daniel, Abner, and Harvey."

Josiah LEONARD and Elizabeth HILLIARD were married on 6 August 1772 in Springfield, Hampden Co., MA. Elizabeth HILLIARD was born on 13 October 1748. She died on 1 March 1820 at the age of 71 in Kingsborough, NY. She was buried in Old Colonial Cemetery, Kingsborough (now Johnston), Fulton Co., NY. There was another Josiah Leonard to whom this Elizabeth Hilliard (Hillard) is frequently linked in marriage. The most reliable source of info regarding this Elizabeth comes from Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar Frank Waterman, Hale, House & Related Lines, 1952, and lists the intentions published for Josiah Leonard of Springfield and Elizabeth Hilliard as 1 May 1772. The NEHGS CD of Springfield VR's to 1850 also lists the same intentions to marry.

The two lines of Hilliards from which Elizabeth is likely to be a daughter are from the South Hadley area (Timothy Hilliard and Mehitable lnu, John Hilliard and Mary Crowfoot, etc.) and Stonington, CT (David Hilliard et. al.). There seem to have been no other Hilliard families in CT or MA at that time. Some other family trees (Luke Hitchcock, for example) have Elizabeth born in Raynham, MA, which adds to the confusion.

She was in her 72nd year when she died.

Josiah LEONARD and Elizabeth HILLIARD had the following children: