Ancestry of
Josiah Oakes

(1778–1855)

Josiah Oakes

View famous kin of Josiah Oakes

• • 1st Generation
  • Ahnentafel No:
  • 1 
  • Father:
  • Urian Oakes 
  • Mother:
  • Lusanna "Lucy" Spear   
  • Birth Date:
  •  
  • Birth Location:
  •  
  • Christening Date:
  • 18 Oct 1778 
  • Christening Location:
  • Cohasset, Norfolk, Massachusetts 
  • Death Date:
  • 22 Jul 1855 
  • Death Location:
  • Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts 
  • Burial Date:
  •  
  • Burial Location:
  •  
  • Notes: 

  • Bridge and wharf builder

    Josiah Oakes is famous for being detained in an insane asylum after some of his children had him declared insane. He was sent to the asylum in JUN 1842 and spent four years there. His children were apparently unhappy that at the age of 67, and only a few days after the death of his wife, he was planning to marry a much younger woman named Sarah Jane Neal.

    Online family trees disagree on the parents of Josiah Oakes with some claiming they were Nehemiah Oakes and Esther Bucknam. However, that Josiah was born in Malden in 1771. According to the death record for this Josiah Oakes, he was born in Cohasset about 1777 or 1778. Later testimony by Josiah Oakes regarding his insanity case also place his birth around 1777 or 1778. This would place him as the son of Urian Oakes and Lucy Spear who was baptized 18 OCT 1778 in Cohasset.

• Marriages for Josiah Oakes

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  • Spouse:
  • Charlotte Richardson
  • Marriage Date:
  • 24 Feb 1805
  • Marriage Location:
  • Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts

• Sources for Josiah Oakes

  • ¹ Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910, Death record for spouse Charlotte Oakes.
  • ² Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924, Death certificate for daughter Martha Richardson Houghton.
  • ³ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850, Cambridge, Vol. 2, p. 290, Marriage record for Josiah Oakes and Charlotte Richardson.
  • ⁴ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850, Cohasset, Vol. 1, p. 79, Baptism record for Josiah Oakes.
  • ⁵ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850, Cambridge, Vol. 1, p. 523, Birth records for children of Josiah and Charlotte Oakes.
  • ⁶ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1841-1910, Cambridge, Vol. 94, p. 38, Death record for Josiah Oakes.
  • ⁷ Matters of Josiah Oakes, Sen'r: Four Years Wrongfully Imprisoned in the McLean Asylum, Through an Illegal . . ., Boston: Published by special request (unknown).
  • ⁸ Matthews' American Armoury and Blue Book, London: John Matthews (1903), 179.
  • ⁹ New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1936, Vol. 90, p. 112.
  • ¹⁰ The Directory of the City of Boston: Embracing the City Record, A General Directory of the Citizens . . ., 1850-1851, Boston: George Adams (1850), 251.
  • ¹¹ Hakes, Harlo, editor, Landmarks of Steuben County, New York, Syracuse, New York: D. Mason and Company, Publishers (1896), Part II, Biographical, p. 64.