Josiah Bartlett
BORN: November 21, 1729, at Amesbury, MA. Parents (English ancestry) – Stephen Bartlett (1691-d1773) and Hannah Mary Webster Bartlett (b1692-d1768). Seven Children – Hannah Bartlett (b1715-___), Stephen Bartlett (b1717-___), Joseph Bartlett (b1720-___), Mary Bartlett (b1726-___), Simeon Bartlett (b1727-___), Josiah Bartlett (b1729-d1795), Levi Bartlett (b1732-___).
DIED: May 19, 1795 (age 65) at his home in Kingston, NH. Religion – Congregationalist (Puritan). Buried – Plains Cemetery in Kingston, NH.
APPEARANCE: Tall, well built, with a fine figure and auburn hair. Dignified, kind and compassionate. Particular about his dress - wore his hair in a queue, a white stock at his throat, ruffles at his wrists, short clothes, silk hose, low shoes with silver buckles.
FAMILY: Married - Mary Bartlett (b1734-d1789) in 1754. Twelve Children – Mary Bartlett Greeley (b1754-d1826), Lois Bartlett (b1756-d1798), Miriam Bartlett Calef (b1758-d1785), Rhoda Bartlett True (b1760-d1794), Hannah Bartlett (b1762-d1762, as infant), Levi Bartlett (b1763-d1828), Josiah Bartlett (b1765-d1765, as infant), Josiah Bartlett Jr. (b1768- d1838), Ezra Bartlett (b1770-d1848), Sarah Bartlett Gale (b1773-d1847), Hannah Bartlett (b1776-d1777, as infant) and a child that was never registered. All three of his sons and seven of his grandsons would follow Josiah as physicians.
OCCUPATION: PHYSICIAN, FARMER, SOLDIER, LEGISLATOR, NH GOVERNOR, JUDGE. Apprenticed to a physician in Amesbury. Moved to Kingston and established medical practice in Kingston. Served as a Colonel in the New Hampshire Militia in 1775. Member of the Continental Congress representing New Hampshire from 1775 to 1776, and again in 1778 to 1779. Served as Governor of New Hampshire from 1790 to 1794. Founded the New Hampshire Medical Society.
AT SIGNING: Age 46 at signing. Second to sign the Declaration after John Hancock and first to sign of the three member delegation from New Hampshire (the first state to sign). On July 2, 1776, he was the first Congressman to vote for independence, and two days later, he was the first man to vote to approve the Declaration of Independence.
AFTER SIGNING: Home in Kingston was burned to the ground by Loyalists in 1774. During the war he worked to build the American Navy and treated wounded soldiers. Declined a return to the Congress because he was too exhausted to attend in 1777, but later in the year served in the Battle of Bennington as a physician.
HISTORIC SITES:
Kingston Home – Josiah Bartlett House, Kingston, NH (1774). Located at 156 Main Street, Kingston, NH 03848, across from the Town Hall. Privately owned.
Gravesite – Plains Church Cemetery (Universalist Church on the Plains), Kingston, NH. Located on Main Street behind the church, Kingston, NH 03848, Phone 603-642-8880, Website www.churchontheplains.org
Monument – Statue (1888). Located at Huntington Square in Amesbury, MA, 10 miles south of Kingston.
Battlefield – Bennington State Historic Site, Walloomsac, NY (1777). Located at Walloomsac, NY to miles northwest of Bennington, VT, Phone 518-686-7109, Website www.nysparks.com/historic-sites. Decisive American victory fought on August 16, 1777.
Home of Josiah Bartlett, Kingston, NH (1774).
Located at 156 Main Street, Kingston, NH 03848, across from the Town Hall. Privately owned.
The roadside historic marker reads – “JOSIAH BARTLETT – 1729 – 1795 – Distinguished participant in the founding of the Republic as signer of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation, and prominent in this State as Chief Justice of two courts and first holder of the title of Governor. An innovator in medicine, he practiced in this town for forty-five years.” In 1774, the house was burned to the ground by Tories and soon rebuilt by Dr. Bartlett. A large spreading linden tree which was brought back on horseback from Philadelphia by Bartlett in the 1770’s, grows in front of the house.”