Joseph Gorham

The Gorham family (from Cape Cod) had a distinguished history in the New England colonial military.

Joseph's grandfather, John Gorham II, also served with Church during the fourth Eastward Expedition into Acadia, which involved the Raid on Chignecto (1696) during King William's War and again during Queen Anne's War.

Joseph and his brother John Gorham III fought as rangers in Acadia/Nova Scotia throughout the 1740s as well as at the Siege of Louisbourg (1745) as officers in the Massachusetts provincial forces.

Initially the rank and file members of the company were Wampanoag and Nauset Indians from southeastern Massachusetts, prized as much for their small-boat handling skills (learned in the whaling industry) as for their scouting and tracking skills, and also a handful of Pequawket Indians from Maine.

Shortly after his brother's death in December 1751, Joseph was promoted to captain and took command of the rangers, who were by then mostly Anglo-Americans.