Dr. Joseph Joslyn (grave 19) was a physician in East Greenwich. He came from Scotland in 1770 at the urging of Governor William Greene who had identified a need for a physician in this area. He was reportedly well thought of in town, although he practiced in East Greenwich for just ten years.
Joseph was married to Hope (Brown) Campbell, widow of Archibald Campbell (grave 18), on January 11, 1774, in East Greenwich by Elder John Gorton (grave 10), pastor of the Baptist meetinghouse. Joseph and Hope had one child, daughter Elisabeth Joslyn, who was just two and a half years old when she died in 1778. Hope’s children with Archibald included Jacob Campbell (grave 17), and another daughter, Elisabeth, who died at just six months old in 1770. The two young Elisabeths are buried together under the same stone (grave 16) engraved with two rising suns.
Joseph operated a small hospital located south of the Courthouse. He provided treatment and inoculation for smallpox. During the American Revolution, Joseph served as the regimental surgeon for Colonel James Mitchell Varnum’s Ninth Rhode Island Regiment.
Joseph was reportedly his own worst enemy and a heavy drinker, a habit which seemingly contributed to his early death at 43 and left East Greenwich without a physician.
