Thomas Joy

Background

Joy was born probably in 1610 in England, although the probability that his native place was the village of Hingham in Norfolk has not been made a certainty by definite evidence.

Career

His name first appears in the records of the town of Boston in New England on February 20, 1636, when he received leave to purchase land of Robert Turner, and "to have it upon the usuall Condition of inoffensive Carryage. "

Joy's occupation seems to have brought him early prosperity, and his name appears in the list of Boston property holders, although he was not yet a freeman. In 1646, however, he took part in the agitation for the extension of the suffrage, and his fortunes suffered as a consequence. Only members of Puritan congregations could vote, and a petition to Governor Winthrop to remedy this condition being rejected, Joy was active in securing signatures to an appeal to the British Parliament. He was arrested and kept in irons for his contumacy, and though he recanted and was released, he removed to Hingham, twelve miles from Boston, where he seems to have maintained himself and his family with some difficulty for about ten years, chiefly from his interest in a grist and saw mill.

By 1656 he had again become prominent in Boston, his early radicalism having been either forgiven or forgotten; and in 1657 he received the contract for the erection of the most pretentious building yet undertaken in the colony. Captain Robert Keayne left three hundred pounds in his will for a structure to house the markets, courts, town council, and other public bodies, and the bequest was more than doubled by public subscriptions. Joy designed the building, although for its construction he had an associate, Bartholomew Bernad, in the contract. It was sixty-one feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and set upon twenty-one pillars ten feet from pedestal to capital. It was of three stories, with three dormer windows on the north and south sides of the upper one. Completed in 1658, it was burned in 1711, but was an outstanding architectual feature of the colony while it stood.

Achievements

• Joy Thomas was the well-known master builder and contractor of the first Town House of Boston. He became very active in the town's development, and no doubt exerted considerable influence on its early architecture; but he was perhaps equally remarkable for his liberal political opinions and the courage to profess them at a time when both were rather rare.

Views

Thomas was an ardent lover of liberty.

Connections

In 1637 Thomas married Joan Gallop, daughter of John Gallop, a shipmaster and trader whose name is still borne by one of the islands in Boston Harbor. Of his ten children five survived him, and through them his descendants are very numerous.

Spouse:

Joan Gallop

father-in-law:

John Gallop

Daughter:

Sarah Joy

Son:

Ensign Joseph Joy

Son:

Thomas Joy

Son:

Samuel Joy

associate:

Bartholomew Bernad