Surname Saturday ~ LITTLEFIELD of Wells, Maine

LITTLEFIELD / LYTTLEFIELD

Edmund Littlefield (1592 – 1661) was my 10^th great grandfather.  He was baptized in Titchfield, Hampshire, England on 22 June 1593, the son of Francis and Mary Littlefield.  He was a clothier, and on 16 October 1614 he married Annis Austin, the daughter of Richard and Agnes Austin, in Titchfield. They had ten children born in Titchfield.

Edmund probably came to New England in 1635 with his two oldest sons.  He was in Boston in 1637.  His wife and six more children immigrated on the ship Bevis in 1638, along with two servants John Knight and Hugh Durdal. 

On 5 June 1639 he was in Exeter, New Hampshire to sign the Exeter Combination, where he was granted 21 acres of land.  Edmund Littlefield joined in with the followers of Rev. John Wheelwright in 1643 and bought land on the Maine coast.  This became the town of Wells.  There is a plaque mentioning Littlefield as the first settler in Wells, on Route One, near 876 Post Road, and it states that his sawmill and gristmill on the Webhannet Falls were the first permanent structures.  One 14 July 1643 he was granted 100 acres of land next to his mills on the Webhannet River. 

His will was dated 11 December 1661 in York County, Maine.  It names his wife Annas; his sons Francis, Thomas and John; and his daughters Mary Barrett, and Hannah.  The will was recorded on 16 July 1662.  I descend from his son Capt. John Littlefield (1624 – 1696/7) who married Patience Unknown.  He ran a mill, just like his father, in Wells.

His son, Josiah Littlefield (about 1662 – 1712) is my 8^th great grandfather.  Josiah married Lydia Masters and had seven children. She was killed by Indians on her way home from Boston on 10 August 1707.  Josiah was killed by the Indians on 26 April 1712 in Wells just a few years after spending two years in captivity in Canada.  His second wife, Elizabeth Hilton remarried to Malachi Edward in 1716, and then she, too, was killed by the Indians in 1738. The Josiahs River in Ogunquit, Maine is named for him. 

Josiah wrote this letter while he was in captivity:

"Dear and loving children, my kind love remembered to you all, and my kind love to my brother and sister, and my kind love to all my friends att Wells, and to Mr. Emery in particular, dasiaring of him prayers for me and for my children, hoping in God they are in good health as I am att this present writing, blessed be God for it.

Aprel the 23 I was taken by foer Indans, and may the 3 I arrived att nongonuay (Norridgewock), and from thence to caback (Quebec), and arrived at caback may the 26 and from thence to Moriel (Montreal), and arrived at Moriel June the 2, and now I have liberty granted to me to rite to my friends and to the governor, and for my redemtion and for Wheelrite’s child to be redeemed by two Indena prisoners that are with the English now, and I have been with the governor this morning and hee have promised that if our governor will send them that wee shall be redeemed, for the governor have sent a man to redeem Wheelrites child and do lookes for him in now every day with the child to Moriel where I am, and I would pray whilrite to be very brief in the matter, that we may come home before winter, for we must come by Albany, and I have allso aquainted our Gofnear dedly (Dudley) with the same, no more at present but remain yours to command."

I descend from Anna Littlefield (born 1702), my 7^th great grandmother, daughter of Josiah.  She married Jacob Perkins in 1717.  In four generations of my lineage, three Littlefields had ten children each, and Josiah had nine children by two wives. 

Some LITTLEFIELD sources:

The Littlefield Family of England, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, by Franklin Emery Littlefield, 1983

NEHGS Register, Volume 105 (1951) pages 261 - 263. 

Genealogy and Family History of the State of Maine, by Henry Sweetser Burrage and Albert Roscoe Stubbs, 1909.

The History of Wells and Kennebunk from the earliest settlement to the year 1820, by Edward Emmerson Bourne, 1875.

My LITTLEFIELD genealogy:

Generation 1:  Edmund Littlefield, son of Francis Littlefield and Mary Unknown, baptized on 22 June 1592 at Titchfield, Hampshire, England, died between 11 December 1661 and 16 July 1662 at Wells, Maine; married on 16 October 1614 at St. Peter’s Church, Titchfield to Annis Austin, daughter of Richard Austin and Agnes Unknown.  She was baptized at Titchfield on 1 February 1597.  Ten children.

Generation 2: John Littlefield, baptized on 1 November 1624 at Titchfield, died 2 February 1696/7 at Wells; married about 1660 to Patience Unknown, mother of ten children.  She died 13 January 1674/5 at Wenham, Massachusetts. 

Generation 3:  Josiah Littlefield, born about 1662 in Wells, died 26 April 1712 at Perkins Cove in Wells; married to Lydia Masters, daughter of Nathaniel Masters and Ruth Pickworth, mother of seven children.  She was born about 1633 in Salem, Massachusetts and died 5 April 1716.  He remarried to Elizabeth Hilton.

Generation 4: Anna Littlefield, born before 28 June 1702 in Wells; married on 12 October 1717 in Hampton Falls to Jacob Perkins, son of Jacob Perkins and Elizabeth Sparks. He was born 15 February 1685 in Ipswich, Massachusetts and died 19 March 1770 in Wells.  Ten children.

Generation 5: Stephen Perkins m. Comfort Chesley

Generation 6:  Mary Perkins m. Nathaniel Batchelder

Generation 7: Jonathan Batchelder m. Nancy Thompson

Generation 8: George E. Batchelder m. Abigail M. Locke

Generation 9: George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 10:  Carried Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ LITTLEFIELD of Wells, Maine”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 12, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/surname-saturday-littlefield-of-wells.html: accessed [access date]).