• Ensign Joseph Gorham, son of Capt. John Gorham, was a shoe maker, and not much engaged in public business. In the division of his father’s estate, he had the southwest forty acres of the old Hallett Farm. It was bounded easterly by the land of his brother James, southerly by the commons, westerly by the land of Caleb Lumbard, and northerly by the highway. This tract of land, with five acres of meadow at Stony Cove, he exchanged March 18, 1680/81, with Joseph Benjamin, of Yarmouth, for 19 1/2 acres of upland and six acres of meadow and appurtenances at Clark’s Neck,* and removed to Yarmouth. In 1683 he was exempted by the Colony Court from serving in the office of ensign at Barnstable.
He died July 9, 1726, aged 72, and was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Yarmouth.
*Clark's Neck is in the northerly part of Yarmouth, west of the Alms House. It was successively called Gorham's, Matthews', and Hawes' neck.
2514, p 415• The “Wast Book” of Col. John Gorham, (N. E. Hist. & Gen. Register, April 1898) “Joseph Gorham married Sarah Sturgis.”
2521, p 180 She was no doubt a daughter of Edward Sturgis, Sr. And a sister of Edward Sturgis, Jr., who married Temperance Gorham, sister to Joseph; also a sister of “Widow Gray,” who married Jabez Gorham.
In the verbal will of Edward Sturgis, Jr., probated at Plymouth June 3, 1679, he gave Joseph Gorham 5 pounds in silver. Joseph Gorham was one of the witnesses of this will.
• Joseph Gorham married probably in Yarmouth before 1678 Sarah Sturgis, who was born about 1656, thought to have the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Hinckley) Sturgis. She died in Yarmouth before 3 February 1738/9. This Sarah Sturgis is said to have been the sister of Edward Sturgis, born 10 April 1642, who married Joseph's sister, Temperance Gorham, and of Hannah (Sturgis) Gray who married Joseph's brother, Jabez Gorham.
2410, p 23• March 8, 1682-3. Whereas Joseph Gorum hath made appear to the Court, that he hath formerly served in the office of an ensign and therefore desireth that he may be freed from training, the Court, on consideration of the premises have freed him from publicke training as a private soldier.
433, p 27• Joseph Gorham, in his will dated July 27, 1723, proved 20th July, 1726, names his wife Sarah, sons Joseph and Josiah, daughter Desire Baxter, granddaughter Sarah Sears, daughter of my daughter Sarah Howes, deceased; also grandchildren Thomas, Eben and Elizabeth Howes.
433, p 27• The widow Sarah Gorham, in her will dated 1st May, 1728, proved 3d Feb. 1738-9, names sons Joseph and Josiah, daughter Desire Baxter, and grand-children Rebecca (Josiah’s daughter by his first wife), Thomas and Eben. Howes, Sarah Sears and Elizabeth Crosby.
433, p 27