On April 19, 1714, Halsy and his wife deeded a house and land on North End, at the corner of Hanover and Salutation Streets, to a shipwright named Joseph Hood. Two years later, on March 2, 1716, he purchased from Jane, his sister-in-law, who was the widow of the mariner John Halsy, her share of the house and land of James Halsie, being the same property on North Street. On March 27 of the same year he purchased the share in the same property belonging to Sarah Dorsan, his widowed sister. In August 1719 he was forced to mortgage some of the property to a merchant named John Frizell, but the mortgage was cancelled in 1741.
Halsy was married for a second time on January 10, 1731, to Mrs. Anna Lloyd, a widow.[83]
Figure 39.—Wooden surveying compass "Made and sold by Joseph Halsy, Boston, New England." The instrument, made of maple, is 11 in. long and has a diameter of 5-3/4 in. In the collection of New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord.
During the 1730's, Halsy continued to buy out the heirs of James Halsie. On March 6, 1730, he acquired the share of Mary Gilbert, a granddaughter, and on the same date he purchased from the James Halsey heirs their inheritance "part to land, wharf, house, shop and buildings on North Street." Other heirs remained, for in June 9, 1732, he bought out the share of Marty Partridge, another granddaughter, and on June 27 the share of Joseph Gilbert, Jr., a grandson. In October 1740 he was forced to mortgage as security to James Bowdoin a house and land on the southwest side of North Street, but this was cancelled when on August 26, 1751, Joseph Halsey and his wife, Anna, deeded to James Noble the land, wooden house, and wharves near Fish Street on North Street between Sun Court and Fleet Street, which apparently was formerly the property of James Halsey that Joseph had acquired with so much trouble over a period of 40 years.[84]
The following advertisement relating to instruments sold by Halsy appeared in the issues of The Boston Gazette for the months of September and October 1738:
Made and sold by Joseph Halsey jun. Hadley's New Invented Quadrant or Octant the best and exacted Instrument for taking the Latitude or Other Altitudes at Sea, as ever yet Invented.[85]
The last dated record relating to Joseph Halsy which has been found is a letter dated February 3, 1762, that he wrote to Robert Treat Paine concerning legal matters.
Only one complete instrument produced by Joseph Halsy appears to have survived—an especially fine wooden surveyors compass (fig. 39) in the collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society. It is made of maple. The compass card, probably the most interesting of any found in the wooden instruments, is hand-colored in black, blue, red, and gold. A fleur-de-lis marks the North point, and triangular pointers indicate the other compass directions. Inside the pointers are crudely painted female figures representing the seven arts: NW, Grammar; W, Logick; SW, Geometry; S, Arithmetick; SE, Astronomy; E, Rhetorick; and NE, Musick. Within a medallion at the center of the compass card is depicted a sailing vessel at sea; surrounding the medallion is a riband inscribed "Made and Sold by Joseph Halsy Boston—New England."[86]
Another, but much less elaborate, compass card used by Joseph Halsy, is an engraved example (fig. 40) found glued in Thomas Paine's own manuscript copy of Charles Morton's Compendium Physicae, which is preserved in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.