Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fourth Generation

SAMUEL⁴ MAXFIELD (Michael³, John^2-1) was born at Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, on 20 May 1767,^[1] a son of Michael Maxfield and his wife Susannah Carr. He died at Sanbornton, Belknap County, New Hampshire, on 16 March 1843.^[2] He married at Gilmanton, Strafford County, New Hampshire, on 26 October 1787 ABIGAIL GILMAN.^[3] She was born at Gilmanton about 1767-8.^[4]

When Samuel was eight years old his mother died. His three older brothers all joined the Patriot cause in the Revolutionary War as soon as they could, but Samuel was too young. It is not clear with whom Samuel stayed after his mother's death. Following the War, the three older brothers moved first to Chichester, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Perhaps Samuel had moved with them. However, Samuel soon moved a little further North, to the town of Gilmanton, where he married Abigail Gilman. Walter Powers, clergyman, presided at the wedding, and reported that both bride and groom came from Gilmanton.^[5] The 1790 census reported the "Samuel Maxwell" family of three at Gilmanton, the third person being female.^[6]

Tragedy struck. On the tenth of September, 1790, while Samuel and Abigail were absent, their house burned down. Their two and a half year old child died in the blaze.^[7]

Samuel and Abigail Maxfield continued to farm in Gilmanton, and raised several more children. The 1810 census reported the "Saml Macksfield" family at Gilmanton, consisting of a man and a woman between the ages of 26 and 45, and three boys and a girl under 10.^[8] This is puzzling, as the known children of this couple living at that time were Deborah, 19, Samuel, 16, John, 13, and Eliza, 3. Was the census taker a very poor judge of age? Or were some other children, not otherwise known to us, in the household? The census records for Gilmanton in 1800 and 1820 evidently no longer exist. I was unable to find a trace of this couple in the 1830 and 1840 censuses. Two of the children had married in 1816, the other two in 1824 and 1825, and their census records in 1830 and 1840 do not indicate the presence of their parents.

In 1827 the county probate court appointed guardians for Samuel Maxfield because he was judged to be a "spendthrift."^[9] John Chase and Stephen Weeks served as guardians, controlling his finances, from 7 December 1827 to 3 December 1840.

Some time between the end of that guardianship, in 1840, and Samuel's death in 1843, the couple moved to Sanbornton, probably to live with youngest daughter Eliza Clark and her family. Samuel Maxfield died in the part of Sanbornton that later became Tilton, the neighborhood known as East Tilton, on 16 March 1843.^[10]

Widow Abigail Maxfield was reported in the 1850 census with her daughter Eliza's family at Sanbornton, as follows:^[11]

I have no further records of Abigail.

Samuel Maxfield and his wife Abigail Gilman had the following children:

1. (first child)⁵ MAXFIELD b. abt. March 1788; d. at Gilmanton on 10 September 1790.^[12]
2. DEBORAH S.⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Gilmanton on 1791;^[13] m. at Upper Gilmanton Parish, Gilmanton on 21 March 1816 GEORGE K. STEVENS,^[14] b. on 1788.^[15]
3. SAMUEL⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Gilmanton on 3 October 1793.
4. JOHN B.⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Gilmanton on 11 December 1796.
5. ELIZA L.⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Gilmanton on 10 November 1806;^[16] d. at Laconia, Belknap Co., on 8 January 1875;^[17] m. at Sanbornton on 29 May 1825 TAYLOR DEARBORN CLARK,^[18] b. on 3 October 1802,^[19] d. on 31 December 1863.^[20]. Children of Eliza and Taylor, recorded in the 1850 census:^[21]
   1. Mary G. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1831-2
   2. Eliza I. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1834-5
   3. Susanna D. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1838-9
   4. Albert T. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1842-3
   5. Abigail A. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1845-6
   6. John W. Clark b. at New Hempshire about 1847-8

¹Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. (Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915), 152.
²French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass., New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, New Hampshire, about 1952.
³New Hampshire, State of, Division of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire, New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 9946, Marriage, Maxfield-Gilman, 1787; digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 24 January 2017).
⁴Place from French, Descendants of John Maxfield. Date based on her age in 1850 Census.
⁵New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 9946, Marriage, Maxfield-Gilman, 1787.
⁶First Census of the United States: 1790, population, Gilmanton, Strafford County, New Hampshure, p. 370, Saml. Maxwell; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 15 September 2012); NARA microfilm publication M637, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
⁷"[No title]," New Hampshire Gazette, 14 October 1790; on line images, America's Historical Newspapers (infoweb.newspank.com : accessed 2012), Early American Newspapers.
⁸Third Census of the United States: 1810, population, Gilmanton, Strafford County, New Hampshire, p. 831, Saml Macksfield; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 17 September 2012); NARA microfilm publication M25, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C..
⁹Strafford County, New Hampshire, Probate Records, 30:148; "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973," digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 14 January 2014).
¹⁰French, Descendants of John Maxfield.
¹¹Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Sanbornton, Belknap County, New Hampshire, p. 58B, household 146, Taylor D. Clark family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 17 October 2012); NARA microfilm record group M432, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
¹²New Hampshire Gazette, 14 October 1790.
¹³French, Descendants of John Maxfield.
¹⁴New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, Stevens-Maxfield, 1816.
¹⁵French, Descendants of John Maxfield.
¹⁶Ibid.
¹⁷Ibid.
¹⁸New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, Clark-Maxfield, 1825.
¹⁹Moses Thurston Runnels, History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire (Boston: A. Mudge & Sons, Printers, 1881), 134; digital images, googlebooks, (accessed 2012)
²⁰Ibid., p. 143.
²¹1850 Census, Sanbornton, Belknap County, New Hampshire, p. 58B, household 146, Taylor D. Clark family.

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

New Hampshire Gazette, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 14 October 1790.

Runnels, Moses Thurston. History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Boston: A. Mudge & Sons, Printers, 1881. Digital images. googlebooks: 2012.

New Hampshire, State of, Division of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire. New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages. Digital images. New England Historical and Genealogical Society. American Ancestors. americanancestors.org : 2017.

Strafford County, New Hampshire. Probate Records. "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973." Digital images. Family Search. familysearch.org: 2014.

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

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

________. Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

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.