Francis Small (abt 1625-abt 1713) of Bideford England, Kittery Maine and Truro Massachusetts

 Francis Small (sometimes Smalley or Smale) has been an interesting man to research—as a child he came from England with his father to live in the Maine wilderness. He grew up to be a fisherman, a trader with the Indians, and reportedly the largest private landowner in the history of Maine. He learned to speak the Abenaki language so was hired to communicate between European settlers and Native Americans. He escaped a murder plot by local Native Americans who owed him money. Long court battles by Francis as well as his descendants over his land brings to mind Bleak House by Charles Dickens as they seem to have been never ending. Because of a lack of vital records in the early District of Maine, much of this sketch does not meet the genealogical proof standard. Francis is my 9th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

Francis Small was baptized 6 October 1625 at St. Mary’s, Bideford, Devonshire, the son of Edward Small. [Hoard] His mother’s name was Elizabeth and her maiden name is unknown. 

Baptismal font where Francis was baptized

St. Mary's Bideford; only tower remains of original building

Some time about 1635 Francis migrated to New England with his father, Edward, settling in the District of Maine, then part of Massachusetts. It does not appear his mother ever joined them as she died in Bideford in 1665. It is also not known whether his father Edward died in Maine or returned to England at some point. [Underhill]

In 1647 Edward was among the first settlers of Piscattaqua Plantation which later became the town of Kittery. He became a large landowner and was an important citizen, elected a Magistrate and Counsellor. There is no definitive proof that the Edward and Francis Small in the Bideford baptism record are the ones who were in Maine but it seems very likely and is generally accepted. [Underhill]

The earliest record of Francis Small is on a Dover, New Hampshire 1648 tax list, where he is rated 10 pounds, a considerable amount. [Wentworth]

About 1651 Francis married a woman named Elizabeth whose maiden name is not known. Some people identify her maiden name as Leighton, daughter of Thomas and Joahanna (Silsby) Leighton, but without a source.  

Elizabeth and Francis had at least eight children, birth order uncertain. First three likely born in Falmouth (now Portland) Maine. 

1. Edward born about 1652; married Mary Woodman and had eight daughters; lived at Oyster River (now Durham, New Hampshire) and later was one of the first settlers at Chatham on Cape Cod; was a boatyard carpenter; died April 1702

2. Francis born about 1654; married a woman named Elizabeth and had at least two sons; was a boatyard carpenter; removed to Truro on Cape Cod where he died in the winter of 1709/10

3. Mary born about 1656; married Nicholas Frost and had at least seven children; lived at Kittery

4. Benjamin born about 1660 possibly at Sabascodegan, Maine; removed to Eastham on Cape Cod where he married Rebecca Snow about 1694 and with whom he had 10 children (she was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Constance Hopkins and her father Stephen Hopkins); later moved to nearby Truro and then to Lebanon, Connecticut where he died before 4 June 1721

5. Samuel born about 1666; was a carpenter; stayed on at his father’s homestead in Kittery; did not have children and have not found any indication of a marriage

6. Alice who married a man named Wormwood

7. Elizabeth; married John Pugsley; lived Dover and Kittery and had at least three children

8. Daniel who was a carpenter and later a whaler appears to be the youngest; had at least five children but his wife’s name is not known; removed to Truro where his parents lived with him in their later years; received a good deal of his father’s Maine land

None of their births were recorded but they are shown to be their children in a variety of records. Newspaper notices in 1774 were signed by some of Francis’ descendants including Samuel Small and Benjamin Small. Samuel and Daniel were deeded land by their father. Squire Paine recalled a conversation with Francis where the latter mentioned his sons Edward, Francis, Samuel, Benjamin, and Daniel. Alice was remembered in her brother Francis Small’s 1709 will. In a 1677 deposition Mary Frost identified her father as Francis Small. Daniel deeded to his sister Elizabeth Pugsley 20 acres of the hundred that was granted to his father. I descend from Benjamin whom I wrote about here.

Places in Maine and New Hampshire where Francis lived and/or owned trading camps include: Sturgeon Creek (later North Precinct of Kittery; currently Eliot); Piscattaqua/Pascataway (now Kittery but at the time comprised what is now also Eliot, South Berwick, Berwick); the fishing village of Pemaquid; Casco Bay (encompassed 13 coastal towns including current day Portland); Falmouth and Capisic (in what is now Portland); a fishing place called Ammomingan; Sebascodegan Island (then called Great Island or Small’s Island and now part of the town of Harpswell). Also lived in Oyster River (now Dover New Hampshire) where he was on the 1648 tax list and the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth. 

source: wikisource

In a 10 May 1683 deposition, Francis Smale states he was about 56 years old and his wife Eilzabeth Smale was about 49 years old. [Underhill]

In a 8 September 1685 deposition Francis Small states he is age 65, but perhaps he was exaggerating. He stated that he helped drive yellow cattle to Boston about 40 years earlier—probably the first major cattle drive from Maine to Boston. Yelllow cattle came from Denmark and were very large. [Libby, Genealogical Dictionary]

It would seem, like most white men of that time period, that Francis tried to take advantage of Native Americans in his business dealings as he paid seemingly little for vast amounts of land. Francis purchased large parcels of land from Native Americans. In 1657 he purchased from Indian Sagamore Scitterygussett of Casco Bay a tract of land at Capissicke (now Portland) and Ammoningan where he built a house. [Underhill]

In 1663 he purchased a large tract of land comprising the northern and some of the middle part of the present County of York. It contained land 20 miles square lying and being between the rivers of Great Ossipee and Little Ossipee. [Bartlett citing York County Deeds vol 42, folio 239]

Lora Underhill’s book contains her extensive research into Francis’ land transactions and the court battles over his land. She relays an interesting story about one such purchase, from old papers once belonging to Major Nicholas Shapleigh: “In the summer of 1668, Francis Small sold goods to the Newichewannock tribe of Indians on credit, for which they were to pay in furs during the autumn; but, when the time of payment drew near, the red men deemed it easier to kill Small than to pay him, and they decided to fire his house and shoot him when he came out to escape the flames. Captain Sandy, the chief of the tribe, was friendly to Small and told him what the Indians were to do; and, as he could not control them int he matter, he advised Small to flee for his life. Small thought the tale a cunningly devised fable to frighten him away in order to avoid payment; but, when night came on, thinking it wise to be on the side of safety, he secreted himself in some pines on a hill near by and watched through the long November night. With the coming of the dawn, a flame of fire shot up from the burning house, whereupon Small took to his heels with all possible speed, and did not pause until he had reached the settlement.” 

Captain Sandy made good on the loss caused by debt and fire, conveying to Francis Small of Kittery, Indian trader, the entire Ossipee great tract which was twenty miles square (256,00 acres!), between the two rivers of great Ossipee and little Ossipee, the same land where Francis Small’s trading house stands and from the River Nechewanock near Humphrey Chadborn’s logging camp and to extend northerly and easterly to Saco River. The chief signed by his mark (his ancestral totem of a turtle) on 28 November 1668. It was not recorded until 28 August 1773. Probably no deed in the entire current state of Maine has caused so many lawsuits as this conveyance. Francis’ payment for this giant parcel of land was two large Indian blankets, two gallons of rum, two pounds of powder, four pounds of musket balls, 20 strings of Indian beads with several other articles.

In 1671 Francis was granted 100 acres of land in the Parish of Unity (now South Berwick) by the Kittery Selectmen. [Underhill] Presumably Francis would have also received land from his father.

In a meeting at Boston of the proprietors of “The Pejapescot Company” on 24 May 1716, it was “voted that a town be laid out at Small Point.” This place “was on the shore of Small Point Harbor, near where Francis Small had had a trading-house, from which, with John Hanson and probably others, he was driven out by the Indian War, about 1690.” [Trask]

The area of Maine where the Small’s lived was decimated by the Indian Wars, in particular King Philip’s War of 1675-8. Of course the Native Americans had many reasons for reacting with violence toward the European settlers, but that wouldn’t have made it any less terrifying to experience. During the height of that war the Smalls lived with their neighbors at the garrison house of Major Shapleigh. Their daughter Mary Frost and two of her children were captured by Indians in 1693 but apparently escaped. 

Likely weary of the dangerousness of living in Maine and the court cases about land ownership, Francis and Elizabeth removed to Cape Cod in the early 1700s. Francis was at Truro at the time it was incorporated in 1709. Francis and Elizabeth lived with their son Daniel. [Deyo] Francis and Daniel were the first to own cattle in town; perhaps they brought yellow cows from Maine. 

Francis died circa 1713 at Truro at about 88 years of age. Elizabeth’s death date is not known but she was alive about 1711. In a 1781 deposition, Francis’ granddaughter Anna Dyer (daughter of Daniel Small) stated Francis had severe palsy in his lands late in life that he was not able to hold a coal of fire to his pipe for several years before a 1712 deed from Francis to Daniel was executed. She felt sure he wasn’t able to sign his name for near seven years before. When questioned further, she said it was at least two years that he could not sign his name, causing him to sign with his mark. Francis died within two or three years after he deeded the land in question to Daniel. The deposition was concerning the legitimacy of Francis’ mark on the deed, as he was a man who could write. [Libby, The Ossipee Townships]

Squire Paine, a Truro lawyer, recalled Francis telling him about a year before his death that “his Son Edward was dead, and his son Francis was dead, his son Samuel was then Liveing at Piscataqua on his Home Place, and his son Benjamin had moved to Coneticut, & his son Daniel had maintained him and his Wife Six or Seven Years and Must Maintain them as Long as they lived.” 

While learning about Francis, I kept thinking of what a challenging life Elizabeth led. She followed her husband from town to town in the Maine wilderness, creating a life for herself and her children while her husband was away from home for long periods of time. She lived through years of intense danger, sometimes staying in a garrison, crowed in with other families for long periods of time, as protection during the Indian wars. She experienced the fear of her daughter and grandchildren being taken by Native Americans. The Cape has always felt like a calming refuge to me, so I’m glad that it is in that peaceful place Elizabeth lived out her final days. 

Sources:

Simeon L. Deyo, editor, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1890: 

Charles T. Libby, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, 1928, p 640

Ralph S. Bartlett, NEHGS Register, “Alexander Shapleigh of Kittery Maine and Some of His Descendants,” 95:184 (April 1941)

George T. Wentworth (communicated by), NEHGS Register, “Extracts from the Old Town Records of Dover NH,” 4:31 (1850)

Lyon J. Hoard, The American Genealogist, “The Jackson and Small Families of Canterbury NH,” 53:138 (1977)

Charles T. Libby (communicated by), NEHGS Register, “The Ossipee Townships—Deposition of Anna Dyer,” 35:336-7 (1881)