Joshua Lamb was born in Massachusetts in November 1642. A resident of Roxbury, Massachusetts, he served in King Philip's Warm a conflict that pitted colonists and their American Indian allies, including the Mohegans and Pequots, against another alliance of American Indians including the Wampanoags, Narragansetts, and Wabanakis. After the war, Lamb became a merchant and established ties with North Carolina, eventually purchasing the whole of Roanoke Island. Sometime before 1685 Lamb sold Alexander, or Sanders, an American Indian as an indentured servant to Perquimans planter Joseph Scott. Sanders served Scott and his heirs until 1705. Lamb died in Roxbury on September 23, 1690.