Joseph Ray was born in about 1750. A resident of Orange County, North Carolina, he married Lydia Miller in March 1771 and the couple had five children together. In the summer of 1779 he may have enlisted as a private in the North Carolina Light Dragoons, serving a three month term mainly in South Carolina. In the fall of 1780 he enlisted as a private in the Orange County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia for a six month term. In December 1780 the Rays' oldest son James fell sick and died. At Lydia's urging her husband came home, but he too fell sick. Lydia hired a substitute to serve out the remainder of her husband's enlistment in the hopes that her husband would have time to recover. Despite her best efforts, Joseph Ray died on about New Year's Day, 1781, leaving Lydia a widow with three small children and a fourth on the way.