Lieutenant Josiah Shackford, Continental Navy
Josiah Shackford, Jr. was born February 7, 1745 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Josiah Shackford married his stepsister Deborah Marshall on February 21, 1771.
Josiah Shackford was master of a number of ships trading in the West Indies immediately prior to the Revolution. In 1772, he commanded the 110 ton ship Middlesex built in Piscatagua in 1769 for owner John Langdon on a cruise to Montserrat. He travelled to St. Christopher’s and Montserrat again in 1772 and 1773 as master of the newly built 200 ton Montserrat Planter for owner John Langdon. Shackford cruised to Nevis in 1775 as captain of the 120 ton ship Marlborough built in Piscatagua the previous year for Woodbury Langdon.
Josiah Shackford, Jr. joined the frigate Raleigh on August 5, 1776 and probably remained on board until her capture in 1778. After serving on the Raleigh, Lieutenant Shackford was master of the New Hampshire privateer Diana of ten guns owned by Thomas Martin and George Wentworth of Portsmouth
Eventually, Lieutenant Shackford moved to Ohio around 1802 and was one of the founders of Portsmouth, Ohio along with William Massie. He died July 26, 1829 at Portsmouth, Ohio presumably without issue.
Sources: Nelson Wiley Evans, A History of Scioto County, Ohio: Together with a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio (Portsmouth, 1903), 825-827; Josiah Shackford, ContinentalNavy.com; To George Washington from Joshua Wentworth, 10 January 1776,” Founders Online,National Archives [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, 66–67.]; Selected Wartime Service Records of Lieutenant Josiah Shackford.
