Joseph Clapp

     Joseph Clapp was born in 1768 in Dutchess County, New York.² He was the son of Joseph Clapp and Mercy Carpenter.¹ He has also been reported to have been born about 1762.¹ Sampson Striker, and his brother-in-law, Joseph Clapp, then eighteen years of age, came together to Ontario via Lake Champlain, Montreal, and up the St. Lawrence with a sleigh and a pair of horses in the month of January 1787, and finally settled in Adolphustown, having been twenty-eight days on the journey from their home in Dutchess County.² He married Nancy Millar on 1 March 1789 in Adolphustown, Lennox & Addington County, Ontario.^1,3,4 He and Benjamin Clapp lived in Adolphustown, Ontario, in 1794.

"Joseph and Benjamin were both listed as inhabitants of Adolphustown in 1794. Joseph eventually settled on several hundred acres close to Milford and built the first lumber mill in the township. It is said that Joseph's mill was the origin of the name of Milford. His lumber was distributed as far away as Europe, being shipped from Quebec."

"There is in the Township Records, a Return of the inhabitants for 1794, March, with the names of each family, and the number of members in each. They are as follows: ... Joseph Clapp, 4... Benjamin Clapp, 8 ..."

He left a will on 27 March 1812 in Prince Edward County, Ontario.¹ He died on 20 February 1813.³ He was buried in Milford Cemetery, Milford, Prince Edward County, Ontario^G.⁵