In April 1780 he enlisted at Plainfield, Conn., for the campaign of 1780 under Capt. Philps and Lieut. Holt of Col. John Durkee’s 4th Conn. Vol. Reg. was transferred to Capt. Clift’s Co. 4th Reg.; also to Capt. Dunlay’s Co. 21st. Reg.; was detached from the 21st Reg. on July 12, 1780 and placed in Capt. Hart’s Co. of the Continental Army. He was in the Army of Gen. Washington at the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Conwallis, commander of the British Forces. He was discharged Oct. 28, 1783. The above data obtained from the Government records at Washington, D.C.

There has been a family narrative handed down from generation to generation that Joseph Boyd was one of Gen. Washington’s body guards during the last two years of the war. This, however, cannot be substantiated from the records.

After Joseph Boyd was discharged in October 1788 he returned to Plainfield, Conn. where on Feb. 5, 1784 he married Zerua Williams. In 1781 he moved his family to Sangerfield District, Oneida Co., N.Y., where he took up a grant of land. On April 1, 1818 he made application for government pension, claim No. S45299 from Brookfield, Madison Co., N.Y. at which place government records show he was living. Pension records place him at Sangerfield, N.Y. in 1820 where he was living with his wife Zerua, who was 59 years of age, and a daughter Lucretia aged 17 years. He was receiving a pension at this time under certificate No. 11283 issued June 3, 1819, commencing Apr. 1, 1818 as per Act of Mar. 18, 1818.

The next government records show Joseph Boyd as living with his son Alvin Boyd in 1840 at Ellery, Chautauqua County, N.Y. On Mar. 4, 1846 records show that Joseph Boyd certified that he had resided for seven years at Stockton, N.Y. The last pension payment covering the period Sept. 4, 1845 to Mar. 4, 1845 was made to Madison Burnell at Albany on Mar. 16, 1846 as attorney for Joseph Boyd.

According to the above records Joseph Boyd moved from Sangerfield, N.Y. to Stockton, N.Y. in 1833, soon after his wife Zerua Williams had died. Joseph Boyd died Mar. 19, 1846 at Ellery, Chautauqua Co., N.Y. and was buried on Alvin Boyd’s lot No. 45 at the old Lewis Cemetery located in the north-west corner of Township Lot No. 59 near West Ellery, Chautauqua County, N.Y. His grave in 1933 was unmarked except for a soldier’s marker with a flag placed there by the American Legion Chapter of Bemus Point. Alvin Boyd, younger son of Joseph Boyd is buried beside his father on Lot No. 45 above referred to.

Mr. Jay Boyd Myers of Relay, Md. located the cemetery which was very much overgrown with small trees and brush, and with the help of Mr. Purl Cornell, Legion Commander at Bemus Point we found the grave of Joseph Boyd. The Legion had placed a flag marker on the grave as they said that a soldier was buried there, but that they did not know his name. Later Mr. Cornell advised Mr. Myers that when cleaning up the cemetery in the spring of 1934 they had found two field stones that had been placed on the graves, one marking the grave on Joseph Boyd, and that this stone had the date 1846 cut into the surface. This date is the year in which Joseph Boyd died, so the grave of Joseph was identified without question. The other stone had no marking but as we know that Alvin Boyd was buried on his own lot, the second stone must have marked Alvin’s grave.

In December 1935 Mr. Myers made arrangements with the Quartermaster’s office in Washington, D. C. to furnish a headstone to government standards as furnished by the Government for all Revolutionary soldiers. The marker was sent to Bemus Point, Mar. 25, 1936 and it was placed on the grave of Joseph Boyd.

A Sampler made by Lucretia Boyd at Sangerfield, Aug. 7, 1831 giving the names, and births of Joseph Boyd's family, is in the possession of Carrie M. Young, great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Boyd.

From the research of Carrie Young, Bemus Point, New York 

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