{{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Brigadier General | name = Joseph Dwight | image = Brig. Gen. Joseph Dwight (1703–1765).jpg | caption = Portrait by Joseph Blackburn, 1756 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1703|10|16}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1765|6|9|1703|10|16}} | birth_place = Hatfield, Massachusetts | allegiance = Massachusetts<br>Great Britain | branch = Massachusetts Militia<br>British Army | rank = Brigadier general | battles = {{Tree list}} * King George's War ** Siege of Louisbourg * French and Indian War {{Tree list/end}} | alma_mater = Harvard College | spouse = Mary Pynchon | children = 9 }} Brigadier General '''Joseph Dwight''' (October 16, 1703 – June 9, 1765) was a military and civil leader and judge in the British American Province of Massachusetts Bay.
==Life== Joseph Dwight was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts on October 16, 1703.<ref name="book" /> He graduated from Harvard College in 1722<ref name="family">[http://www.virtualology.com/josephdwight/ Life and times of Judge Joseph Dwight and his children]</ref> and was admitted to the bar in Worcester in 1733. He was the first member of the Worcester Country Bar.<ref name="book">[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8HioB5tMIUC&pg=PA113 book about History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts]</ref> He was eleven times a member of the Massachusetts Colonial Council between 1731 and 1751, and its speaker from 1748 to 1749.<ref name="family" /> During this time, he had become a colonel of the militia. He became the brigadier general on 20 February 1745, and was second in command at the attack on Louisburg in that year, where he led, in person, the "Ancient and honorable company of artillery of Boston," General William Pepperrell commended Joseph Dwight for his courage and skill. In 1756, he commanded a brigade of Massachusetts militia, at Lake Champlain, in the French and Indian War.
In 1752, he moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to act as Trustee of "the Indian Schools," a position he held when Jonathan Edwards was also at work there as a missionary (1751-8) to that settlement of whites and Christianized Ingenious. Joseph Dwight remained on the bench as Chief Justice of the Berkshire County Court of Common Pleas until his death.<ref name="book" />
He married Mary Pynchon and they had nine children. Their daughter Dorothy Dwight married Jedediah Foster (1726–1779).<ref>http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/o/s/Lille-Koski-CA/GENE1-0023.html {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6f4N2npGQUC&pg=PA391|title=The Life of Charles Robinson: The First State Governor of Kansas|isbn=9780836959710|last1=Blackmar|first1=Frank Wilson|year=1901|publisher=Books for Libraries Press }}</ref> Joseph Dwight built a house at Great Barrington which still stands, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He was one of the leading men when it came to the management of town business, and in giving direction to inhabitants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/charles-j-charles-james-taylor/history-of-great-barrington-berkshire-county-massachusetts-lya/page-16-history-of-great-barrington-berkshire-county-massachusetts-lya.shtml|title=Read the eBook History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts by Charles J. (Charles James) Taylor online for free (Page 16 of 44)}}</ref> He died on June 9, 1765. By the time of his death, he was patriarch of a large branch of the New England Dwight family.<ref name="dwight2">{{cite book |author=Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight |author-link=Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight |title= The history of the descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass |volume= 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghcfAAAAMAAJ |year=1874 |publisher=J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0213 Foster Family Autograph Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024094813/http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0213 |date=2007-10-24 }} *List of children and details Joseph Dwight: {{cite web |title= Ancestors of Lille Foster |work= Family Tree Maker on Genealogy.com |url= http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/o/s/Lille-Koski-CA/GENE1-0019.html |accessdate= January 25, 2011 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dwight, Joseph}} Category:1703 births Category:1765 deaths Category:Military and militia personnel of the Thirteen Colonies Category:People from Hatfield, Massachusetts Category:People of Massachusetts in the French and Indian War Category:Military personnel from colonial Massachusetts Category:Harvard College alumni Category:People from Stockbridge, Massachusetts Category:Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (colonial period) Category:British military personnel of the French and Indian War