Individual Details

Joseph Skinner, born 2 Jul 1673, Massacoe Plantation, Windsor, Harford, CT.
I believe his parents to have been Joseph Skinner and Mary Filley. Joseph Skinner who married Mary Filley is said to have lived in Massaco, now Simsbury. They were early settlers of Simsbury, but after it was burned by the Indians in 1676, they moved to Windsor. The name Massaco apparently refers to an Indian tribe that was present in the area, also to the river which the Indians called the Masasco, and also to the land which now lies west of the Farmington River. Simsbury was founded May 1670.

There is a problem with the Joseph Skinners....FindAGrave.com [also many databases] has Joseph Skinner, son of John & Mary Easton Skinner as first married to Dorothy Hosmer,, and (2) to Elizabeth Olmsted. Children by these marriages are shown. Birth is given as 26 Aug 1669, death as 7 Feb 1747. THAT John Skinner had a son born in Hartford on 26 Aug 1669 is recorded in the records of the Town of Hartford. Full Communion at First Church of Hartford, 1 May 1709.
Joseph, died 1747, is buried, Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, CT. His stone is pictured "Here lies Interred the Body of M. Joseph Skinner who Departed this Life February 7, 1747 ...more is there but unreadable.

It is my opinion that the two Joseph Skinners - one the son of John & Mary Easton Skinner, born 1669 in Hartford and the Joseph, son of Joseph and Mary Filly Skinner of Windsor, born in 1673, have been confused and combined in most databases. Apparently the older genealogies also had this wrong and they are confused/combined in many places in print.

A book found on Ancestry.com, Descendants of the Female Branches of Joseph Loomis, by Elias Loomis, New Haven, 1880, seems to be one of the early printings of the reversal of the two Joseph Skinners, cousins. On p.108 in the 3rd Generation, he had Deacon Joseph Skinner, b. Aug 26, 1669, who married Mary Grant, as the son of John Skinner of Hartford, and Joseph who married Dorothy Hosmer as the son of Joseph Skinner of Windsor. Interestingly, someone had hand-written in the margin by this last entry "NO!" The two Josephs are reversed in this oft-quoted book.

Joseph married Mary Grant 23 Jan 1674/75 in Windsor, CT. He married (2) Ester (Bissell) Drake on 21 Aug 1718, Windsor. CT. These marriages are recorded in the Windsor Vital Records.
In the book found on Ancestry.com, Families of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. II, Genealogies and Biographies by Henry R. Stiles, published in Hartford, 1892, p.302-305, in an article on the Grant family there is the stated that "Mary Grant, b. at Windsor, 23 Jan 1675/6, m. 13 Mch. 1691 to Joseph Skinner, Jr., of Windsor". This would certainly indicate she married a man from Windsor, not Hartford, and is suggestive that his father was also a Joseph Skinner and not a John.

Joseph Skinner of Windsor left a will, dated 23 Mar 1748, but not probated until 2 Mar 1756. He provided for his wife Hester, all personal estate and use of house and one half of barn, during the time she remained his widow. Gave son Joseph rights in equivalent lands. Son Daniel his lot in the Mile & Half Mile division of Commons. Son Abijah, south half of the homestead, and to son Azariah, the north half. Abijah also had lands in the 1st division of Barkhamstead. Son John, lands in Wintonbury, also 1st division of Barkhamstead. Five sons to have wearing apparel. Five sons and four daughters to have all his books. Sons Abijah & Azariah to pay his four daughters, Mary, Hannah, Ann, and Elizabeth, 20 pounds each and to be executors.
Wit: Josiah Phelps, Benjamin Phelps, Matthew Rockwell.
Note that Joseph did not give a married name for any of his daughters, all born of Mary Grant, yet all were certainly well past marriageable age before his will was written in 1748.

Birth	1673	Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut
Marriage	13 Mar 1693/94	Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut - MARY Grant
Marriage	21 Aug 1718	Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut - Esther Bissell
Death	19 Jan 1756	Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut

Spouse	MARY Grant (1674 - 1718)
Child	MARY Skinner (1695 - 1766)
Child	Joseph Skinner (1698 - 1756)
Child	Hannah Skinner (1700 - )
Child	Ann Skinner (1701 - )
Child	Daniel Skinner (1703 - 1776)
Child	Elizabeth Skinner (1706 - )
Child	Abijah Skinner (1709 - )

Spouse	Esther Bissell (1679 - 1755)
Child	Azariah Skinner (1719 - )
Child	Lucy Skinner (1721 - )
Child	Lucy Skinner (1723 - 1736)
Child	John Skinner (1725 - )

Father	JOSEPH Skinner (1643 - 1724)
Mother	MARY Filley (1651 - 1711)
Sibling	Mary Skinner (1667 - 1730)
Sibling	Elizabeth Skinner (1669 - )
Sibling	John Skinner (1675 - )
Sibling	Thomas Skinner (1677 - )
Sibling	Ann Skinner (1684 - 1756)
Sibling	Isaac Skinner (1691 - )