Joseph Breed Sr. (1708 - abt. 1778)

Born 4 Oct 1708 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Priscilla (Avery) Breed — married 2 Jun 1737 in Groton, New London, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died about 1778 at about age 69 in Fairforest Creek Settlement, Union County, South Carolina, United States [uncertain]

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Biography

Rev. Joseph Breed was born 4 Oct. 1708 at Stonington, Connecticut. He was Christened 2 Jan. 1709 at the First Congregational Church in Stonington, Connecticut. He was the ninth child of Mercy (Palmer) Breed (abt.1669-1752) & John Breed Sr. (1662-1751).

He married Priscilla Avery the 2nd of June 1737 at Groton, Connecticut, the ceremony performed by Justice Luke Perkins. John and Gershom Breed, his brothers, were witnesses.

A florid, yet well sourced account of their lives, and of many of their followers and associates, appears here: https://www.breedfamilypride.com/rev-joseph-breed.html. According to this account, he was admitted to the First Congregational Church in Groton, Connecticut, Oct. 4, 1741. He remained in Groton until at least 11 Aug 1746, as evident by deeds executed during this time.

According to one reference in this account, In 1752, Joseph Breed and his associate Daniel Marshall moved with their families to a frontier town called Onnaquaggy [sic; Ouaquaga] in the wilderness on the Susquehanna River, in southern New York, where they began missionary work with the Mohawk Indians. They remained there for 18 months, then moved to "Connogogig", Pennsylvania for a short stay.

Thereafter, Joseph appeared in Frederick County, Virginia on (19 or15 ) April 1754, where he was shown signing papers selling his land in Groton, Connecticut. On 15 Jun 1755 he bought 149 acres of land in Frederick County, Virginia, as shown by a patent granted to him at that time by an agent for The Honorable Lord Fairfax. Fairfax was the owner of the Northern Neck Proprietary. The Northern Neck Proprietary had a total land area of 5 million acres of the Northern Virginia region.

Joseph was a member of a group of Separatist (later termed Baptist) religious followers of Shubal Stearns of Boston.

After the defeat of Gen. Edward Braddock near Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) during the French & Indian War, the frontier of Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic colonies was left unprotected, so many settlers moved further south. On 22 Nov 1755 Shubal Stearns, Daniel Marshall, Joseph Breed and their families departed Opequon, Virginia, traveling about 200 miles south to what is now Randolph [at that time Orange] County, North Carolina, where they established Sandy Creek Baptist Church, located just northeast of Asheboro.

From those times forward the movement to establish churches and congregations became a way of life for Joseph Breed. He joined Philip Mulkey in moving to the Broad River section of South Carolina in August 1760 to establish the Fair Forest Church, of which Joseph and his wife Priscilla (Avery) were among 3 families [including those of Philip Mulkey and Stephen Howard] who were documented as founders. Several other branches of the Fair Forest Church were established by these same people.

On 17 Jun 1763 Joseph Breed received a land patent in Craven (now Union County), South Carolina. On 4 Jul 1768 Joseph granted power of attorney to his friend John Hayes of Frederick County, Virginia, to sell the land he still owned in Frederick County, Virginia.

Note: Between 1798 and 1801, Joseph and Priscilla (Avery) Breed's daughter Priscilla and her husband Obediah Howard, probably her brothers Avery and Nathan, sisters Phebe and Hannah, along with their families, and other associates ventured to southeastern Kentucky, joining the Mill Creek Baptist Church in Barren [now Monroe] County, Kentucky. Importantly, we have no evidence that either Joseph Breed Sr., and/or his wife Priscilla (Avery) Breed, took part in this westward sojourn into Kentucky. If they were still alive, they likely remained in the vicinity of Fairforest, South Carolina, for the remaining duration of their lives. There is no definitive record of where Joseph Breed Sr. died, or where his remains are.

Sidebar Notes

A) Joseph Breed's wife Priscilla (Avery) Breed gave beef to feed South Carolina Patriot militia as they battled Loyalist forces commanded by the British.

B) A South Carolina Treasury pay certificate issued on the date of 11 May 1786, in the principal amount of "Five pounds fourteen shillings, and three pence farthing", for "duty done in Brandon's Regiment [etc.]" pertains to the son of this Joseph Breed Sr.

C) Per the Breed Family Association records, and the Alabama Archives records cited below, this Joseph Breed (generation 4) was "buried in Washington Co., Georgia." Very likely this represents an error of confusion with their son Joseph (generation 5), who did migrate to and settle in or near the city of Washington, Georgia, which is in the county of Wilkes, not in Washington County. As indicated above, there is no evidence that Joseph Breed Sr. and/or his wife Priscilla (Avery) Breed ever departed from their residence at Fairforest, [present day] Union County, South Carolina.

D) The Mill Creek Church in Kentucky was founded in 1798 by John Mulkey who was born in Fairforest, SC in 1773. He died in 1844. His brother Phillip Mulkey was born in SC in 1775, and was also one of the founders of Mill Creek. They came to Mill Creek from Big Pigeon Baptist Church in Cocke County, Tennessee as noted in church records dated September 30, 1797. They were the grandchildren of the Eld. Philip Mulkey II, who was an associate of Shubal Starnes, and one of the founders of the Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church near Boone's Creek in Washington County, Tennessee and the Fairforest Baptist Church in South Carolina. The Mill Creek Baptist Church split in 1809 and Old Mulkey was formed. It was no longer a Baptist Church, and became part of the Restoration Movement. John Mulkey remained as the Pastor. The parents of John Mulkey and Phillip Mulkey were Jonathan Mulkey (1752-1826) and Nancy Howard Mulkey. Rev. Phillip Mulkey (1732-c.1801) was their grandparent.

Sources

• Breed Family Association Vol. 8 (1929), pp. 230, 232, no. 9: https://archive.org/details/Vol8Dec.1929imagedByP.EverettOCRByJRF/page/n20/mode/1up; Vol. 16 (1963), p. 6, no. 2: https://archive.org/details/BreedFamilyAssociationVol161963OCR/page/n49

• Alabama Department of Archives and History. Public Information Subject Files—Surname files, 1901-1984 available via microfilm in reference, SG002624-2652 and 13361-13362, containing the materials added from 1984-2005. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama: https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61266/41904_539956-01190?pid=230760&treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=GYR1074&_phstart=successSource#?imageId=41904_539956-01190 Alabama, Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981 [Note: This item contains many errors; in this instance focusing particularly on the father of Rev. Joseph Breed, John Breed was married only once, to Mercy Palmer. The cited source itself was based upon a specious compilation published by Savage, hence this reference should be viewed with caution as to its credibility.]

• Rootsweb: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~nanc/genealogy/breed/aqwg04.htm

• Breed family records: https://www.breedfamilypride.com/rev-joseph-breed.html

• Ancestors & Friends by William Crawford Dallas, Texas

• Old Mulkey, A Pioneer Plea for the Ancient Order, History of the Early Mill Creek Church, Monroe County, Kentucky by Loy R. Milam, Tompkinsville, KY, 1996, 2014

• Pioneer Baptist Church Records of South-Central Kentucky and the Upper Cumberland of Tennessee 1799-1899, p. 422

See Also:

• Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.Ancestry Family Tree Ancestry Family Tree 156107521

Acknowledgements

Breed-288 was created by Kathy Stewart through the import of francescbreed.ged on Jan 27, 2014.