52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 28: JOHN WAKEFIELD

For Week 28 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, I come to the last post (for
now) on my paternal grandmother Cora Barker's ancestors on her mother's side of her
family tree. This concerns my 9x great grandfather John Wakefield, who married Elizabeth
Littlefield, sometime before 1663 when his daughter (and my 8x great grandmother)Mary
Wakefield was born.

Much of the records of Wells Maine were destroyed in several Indian attacks during the King Philip's War. There's not much online, either. I was able to find the following in Volume 1 of Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire:

(I) John Wakefield, the progenitor of the family which has been very numerously represented in Maine, was a native of England. The first record of him found in this country bears date January 1, I637, when at the town meeting held at Salem he was assessed fifteen shillings as an inhabitant of Marblehead in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. It is presumable that he came as early at least as the previous summer. On the fourteenth of the same month, among the several portions of land laid out at Marblehead. he received four acres "on the Neck." Prior to 1648. he lived in Salem, which then included the present town of Marblehead. He first appears on record in Maine in 1641, when he and his brother-in-law, John Littlefield, received a grant of what is known as the Great Hill Farm. The hill at that time extended much farther into the sea than it now does, and with the projecting land at the eastern end was called the Great Neck. This was in the ligonia patent, and neither of the grantees took possession probably on account of the uncertainty as to their title. John Wakefield settled in the town of Wells, where he attained considerable prominence. He served as commissioner and selectman in 1648-54-57. In each instance his father-in-law, Edmund Littlefield, served in the same capacity. In 1652 John Wakefield purchased Wakefield's island and removed to it in that year and there resided for a time. He subsequently purchased land in Scarboro and resided upon it several years. Thence he removed to that part of Biddeford which is now Saco, where he remained until his death. That he was a man of considerable substance, is evidenced by the fact of his buying and selling lands, and he was frequently called upon to witness deeds for others. In 1670, when he was probably incapacitated by illness or the infirmities of age, his wife acted as his attorney in selling parcels of land. He died February 15, 1674, and was buried at Biddeford. The destruction of the records of Wells, Maine, leaves us no accurate data as to the time of his marriage or his birth or the births of his children. His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Edmund and Annis Littlefield, of Wells. Her death is not recorded. Their children included: John, James, Henry, William, Mary and Katherine.
p30
Ezra S. Stearns, William Frederick Whitcher, Edward Everett Parker. editors, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 1, Lewis Publishing Company, 1908


Now I'll be moving on to the Coburn family side of Grandmother Barker's family tree.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 27: EDMUND LITTLEFIELD

For this installment of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, I'm going back up the Upton branch
of my Barker line to the family of Abigail (Frost) Upton's mother, Mary (Wakefield) Frost.
She was the daughter of John Wakefield and Annis(Agnes) Littlefield, my 9x great
grandparents. This post will be about her father, my immigrant ancestor Edmund
Littlefield.   

I have found very little online about either the Littlefields or Wakefields other than a
few entries in family or regional genealogies. Here's what I found for Edmund in William
Richard Cutter's Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 4:

(1) The founder of the Maine branch of the family on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Edmund Littlefield, was born in England. 1591. He was knighted for bravery on the battle field, and given a coat-of-arms. He first appears in Boston, Massachusetts. 1635. He was a churchman and royalist, and on account of his political and religious opinions was refused permission to settle in any of the plantations of the Massachusetts colony, hence went to Maine and located in the colony at Wells, in that then sparsely settled region, where he, with John Wheelright, Edward Rishworth. Henry Boade and others, "entered on the land and began to make it subservient to the uses of man." His relations with Wheelright lead to the inference of a close friendship, and one authority says he was one of Wheelright's church in Exeter, and one of the combination to each of whom twenty-one acres of land was assigned under the Gorges proprietary. This church was founded by those whose theology was denounced by the dominant church in the Massachusetts colony, and as Littlefield's name does not appear in the list of those who were driven from the plantation at Boston, it is assumed that he left there before the actual expulsion took place. He built a saw and grist mill on the Webhannet river in 1641. He was one of the committee to settle boundary between Wells and Cape Porpoise, and a commission to try small causes, elected by the people for the years 1654-55-58-60-61. A family tradition is that he came over in a ship of his own building, bringing machinery for his mills. "The programme of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the town of Wells reads: Sir Edmund Littlefield, with Rev. John Wheelright, shares the honor of founding the early settlement in Wells." The baptismal name of his wife was Annis, but her family name is not known. She died in 1678, having survived her husband seventeen years, he having died in 1661. The children: Francis, Anthony, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, Mary, Hannah, Francis. Seventy-six of his descendants were in the revolution.-p 1244

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 4  Lewis historical Publishing Company, Boston, Ma. 1908

 
The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 1 gives more information about Edmund's involvement with Wheelwright. The town of Exeter that is mentioned is in New Hampshire:

 (I) Edmund Littlefield, born in Southampton, England, about 1600, married Annis. (The records give no family name.) He came to this country from Tichfield, England, probably at the same time as the Rev.John Wheelright, for he was one of his parishioners at Exeter in 1630, and was one of the combination to whom twenty-one acres of land was assigned. In 1638 he sent to England for his family, and on May 16 of that year his wife Annis and six children took passage for Boston in the "Bevis" of Hampton, Captain Townes. The Rev. John Wheelright, owing to a religious controversy precipitated by the teachings of Anne Hutchinson, left Exeter and later went to Wells, Maine, many of his parishioners going with him, and among them Edmund Littlefield, who in 1641, leaving Exeter, went to Wells, Maine, where he was one of the first settlers. He was supposed to have built the first house, a saw mill and grist mill. He was deeded a lot of land by Sir Ferdinand Gorges in 1643, and was a leading spirit in organizing the town and promoting its development. He was on the grand jury in 1645, and it is said was the richest man in Wells. He and his sons were millmen and farmers. He was of fearless enterprise and sound moral principle. On account of this firm, moral character, he was appointed by the governor of Massachusetts agent for the sale of liquors in Wells, it being then of the utmost importance that great discretion should be used in the distribution to the Indians. He was one of the committee to settle the boundary between Wells and Cape Porpoise, and was elected by the people for the years 1654, 1655, 1658, 1660 and 1661 to try small cases. He died in December, 1661. Children: Francis, born 1619; Anthony, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, Mary, Hannah, Francis Jr., born 1631.-page 101

 Henry Sweetser Burrage & Albert Roscoe Stubbs The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 1  Lewis Historical Publishing Company,  New York, 1909

My ancestor Edmund Littlefield led quite an impressive life, but I think I'm more impressed by his wife
Annis crossing over with those six children after Edmund had gone before them!