Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fourth Generation

DUDLEY⁴ MAXFIELD (Samuel³, John^2-1) was born at Salisbury, Essex County, Massachuestts, on 4 May 1752,^[1] a son of Samuel Maxfield and his wife Jemima Eaton. He died at Salisbury on 10 May 1835.^[2] He married first probably before 1773 (the birth of their first child) SARAH ________. She died at Salisbury on 17 July 1781.^[3] Dudley Maxfield married as his second wife at Salisbury on 25 May 1820 widow ELIZABETH (COLBY) FLANDERS.^[4] She was born at Amesbury, Essex County, on 20 March 1773,^[5] a daughter of Obadiah and Mary (Merrill) Colby. She had married at Amesbury on 5 September 1793 BENAIAH FLANDERS,^[6] who was born at Salisbury on 7 February 1772, ^[7]and died there on 13 April 1815.^[8]

Dudley Maxfield was baptized with his three surviving older siblings and his younger sister at Second (Congregational) Church, Salisbury, on 16 September 1753.^[9]

Dudley Maxfield served in the Revolution for seven days. A typical minute-man, he responded promptly to a need, and went home just as quickly when the immediate need was over. In response to the alarm of 19 April, 1775, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, he marched on 20 April with Capt. Henry Morrill's company, Col. Caleb Cushing's regiment.^[10]

Dudley Maxfield was about 20 years old when he married Sarah, twenty-one when their first child was born, and twenty-four at the time of his brief excursion into war. When Dudley was twenty-nine years old, his wife died, leaving him with two boys, ages seven and one. Dudley raised his family in Salisbury, and remained a widower for thirty-eight years. Then, at the age of sixty-eight, he married widow Elizabeth (Colby) Flanders, who was forty-seven years old, less than a year older than Dudley's oldest son. She brought to the marriage one child, Weld Flanders, who was twelve years old. This second marriage lasted almost fifteen years, ending with Dudley's death at Salisbury on 10 May 1835. Elizabeth lived on as a second-time widow for almost eleven years, dying at Salisbury at the age of seventy-three on 9 April 1846.

The census records report this family living at Salisbury from 1790 through 1840. The census records for this period do not name each individual in the family; they only name the head of household, and give numbers of persons in different categories of age and sex. Following are these census reports,^[11] with some possible explanations of who these persons might have been:

Some of the unidentified older women could have included some of Dudley's sisters, or unrelated women hired as housekeepers. As Dudley's sons are not listed as heads of their own households, they evidently lived with their father (and step-mother) throughout their lives.

In 1792 or 1802 Dudley Maxfield was among 47 purchasers of a piece of property in Salisbury for the purpose of a burying place.^[12]

Dudley Maxfield applied for a pension as a soldier of the Revolution shortly after his second marriage, on 10 July 1820:^[13]

Dudley Maxfield was denied a pension at that time, not because of the shortness of his service, but because he was not poor enough. Later he was accepted, and appeared on a list of pensioners at Salisbury on 11 September 1832.^[14]

Dudley Maxfield and his first wife Sarah had the following children:

1. HENRY⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Salisbury on 27 December 1773;^[15] d. at Salisbury on 16 December 1846.^[16]
2. SAMUEL⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Salisbury on 7 August 1779;^[17] d. at Salisbury on 13 July 1819.^[18] On 3 August 1805, Samuel Maxfield of Salisbury, caulker, purchased from Jonathan Barnard, Jr., of Amesbury, Gentleman, for $106.67, one-third part of a parcel of land at Amesbury at the Mill, so-called, . . . and a saw mill, together with one-third part of the Oil Mill standing thereon, and one third part of the stream.^[19] On 23 February 1811 Samuel Maxfield of Salisbury sold to Jacob Morrill of Salisbury, anchormaker, for $300, the above property.^[20] On 28 November 1815, Samuel Maxfield of Salisbury, caulker, sold to Martha Maxfield of Amesbury, single woman (his aunt), for $550, one undivided half of a piece of land, 7 rods, in Salisbury at the Mills, with one undivided half of dwelling house and shop thereon.^[21] Martha Maxfield already owned the other half.

Elizabeth (Colby) Flanders had the following child by her first husband Benaiah Flanders :

• WELD FLANDERS b. at Salisbury on 14 February 1808;^[22] m. (intentions at Salisbury on 3 December 1831) HANNAH CARTER.^[23]

¹Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Topsfield, Massachusettd: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915), 151.
²Ibid., 7:20.
³Ibid., 586.
⁴Ibid., 416.
⁵Vital Records of Amesbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1913), 58.
⁶Vital Records of Salisbury, 353.
⁷Ibid., 94
⁸Ibid., 558.
⁹David W. Hoyt, The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982), 443.
¹⁰Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary, ed., Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War (Boston: Wright L. Potter, 1902), 10:366.
¹¹First Census of the United States: 1790, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 4:571; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Second Census of the United States: 1800, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 14:56; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com ); Third Census of the United States: 1810, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 18:141; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Fourth Census of the United States: 1820, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 49:358; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 61:128; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, 180:290; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹²Essex County, Massachusetts, Land Records, 171:241, accessed 5 July 2013; Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).
¹³Selected Records from Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, ), Dudley Maxfield.
¹⁴"United States Pensioners: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Essex SS, Probate Office, December 31, 1836," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 49 (1895): 319.
¹⁵Vital Records of Salisbury, 152.
¹⁶Ibid., 586
¹⁷Ibid., 152.
¹⁸Ibid., 586
¹⁹Essex County, Massachusetts, Land Records, 191:257-58, accessed 5 July 2013; Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).
²⁰Ibid., 191:258.
²¹Ibid., 207:224-25.
²²Vital Records of Salisbury, 98.
²³Ibid., 356

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary, ed. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War. Boston: Wright L. Potter, 1902.

Essex County, Massachusetts. Land Records. Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).

French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass. New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, New Hampshire, about 1952.

Hoyt, David W. The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982.

Selected Records from Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. Microfilm publication . Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, .Repository: Onondaga County Library, Syracuse, New York.

United States, Department of the Census. First Census of the United States: 1790, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. Second Census of the United States: 1800, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012 .

________. Third Census of the United States: 1810, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. Fourth Census of the United States: 1820, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

"United States Pensioners: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Essex SS, Probate Office, December 31, 1836." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 49 (1895): 316-22.

Vital Records of Amesbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1913.

Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915.

Wright, Elizabeth. "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652, and Some of His Descendants." The Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record (1928–1930): 6:52-56; 7:20-24, 42-47, 61-71, 87-96; 8:15-22.