After having been settled in Southampton, New York for some time, The Woodruffs were becoming land poor with ever rising taxes by the early 1700s and it was time to move on.

Joseph Woodruff, son of John Woodruff the Younger & Hannah Newton, was born c1676, grew up in Southampton and married Hannah (MNU), c1704, place uncertain, but he was living in New Jersey by that time. He appears in the household of his father in 1686 (top of the page):

Joseph had already left home by the time his father wrote his will in 1701, as Joseph took possession of his new land, Lot 149, consisting of 100 acres, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey that same year.

However, their life there was not calm, particularly when an ejectment suit was filed by the proprietors against the associates, of which Joseph Woodruff was one.

The lawsuit dragged on for years, so the Woodruff land title remained in question and the area in which this Woodruff family lived became known as Westfield.

Joseph Woodruff wrote his will on 15 January 1742 and died a couple of weeks later on 2 February 1742. Hannah (MNU) survived him. His wife and thirteen children were al named in his will, but the eldest five children had already received their portions so received only five shillings each.

All children were likely born in what is today Westfield, Union, New Jersey.

Children:

1. John, born c1705; died 25 September 1768, Westfield, Union, New Jersey; married Eleanor Donnington, c1730
2. Jonathan, born c1707; died 15 July 1777, Westfield, Union, New Jersey
3. William, born c1709; died after his father’s 1742 will; perhaps married Phebe Williams, c1733. No further record.
4. Samuel, born c1711; died 30 August 1754, Westfield, Union, New Jersey; married Abigail Megie (McGee?), c1735
5. Abigail, born c1713; died c1766, probably New Jersey; married John Gould, 16 July 1737, Elizabethtown, New Jersey
6. Joseph, born c1717; died after his father’s 1742 will; no further record
7. Nathaniel, born c1719; died perhaps 1795, Spartanburg County, South Carolina; perhaps married (1) Hannah (MNU) (2) Susannah (MNU). Nathaniel sold his land in Surry County, North Carolina to William Cook in 1788 (D:257-258). No wife released dower rights. Nathaniel seemed to have had at least five children, but no documentation has been found for any but Samuel, just preponderance of evidence based on location and ages.
8. Joanna; born c1720; married Josiah Crane, who received Joseph’s legacy in right of his unnamed wife on 10 May 1742. Unless Abigail or Sarah married twice, Joanna must have been Josiah’s wife.
9. Isaac, born c1721; died 17 October 1803, Elizabethtown, New Jersey; married Sarah (MNU)
10. Thomas, born c1722; died 2 April 1804, Westfield, Union, New Jersey; married Rebecca Merry, c1744
11. Sarah, born c1723; died 4 November 1793, Livingston, Essex, New Jersey; married Enos Baldwin as his second wife
12. Hezekiah, born c1725; died 22 October 1776, Westfield, Union, New Jersey; married Mary Stites, c1748
13. Benjamin, born c1726; died 1786, Bergen County, New Jersey; married Jane (MNU). He was not yet 16 when his father wrote his will in 1742.

While many of this family chose to remain in New Jersey, the children of John and Eleanor (Donnington) Woodruff were looking to future opportunities in the South, as was Nathaniel Woodruff, who settled in Surry County, North Carolina by 1771 and reportedly died c1795 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

It was their descendants who continued to move westward into Kentucky.

We’ll come back to this family soon as this is one of my husband’s double Woodruff descents through sons John and Nathaniel.