Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fourth Generation

ELIPHALET⁴ MAXFIELD (Eliphalet³, Nathaniel², John¹) was born at South Hampton, New Hampshire, on 4 August 1744^[1] a son of Eliphalet Maxfield and his wife Elizabeth Thompson . He died some time after 1800, when he was reported in the census. He married at Newton, New Hampshire, on 29 March 1764 LYDIA JONES.^[2] She was born at South Hampton on 10 March 1740,^[3] a daughter of Joseph and Mary Jones.

Sometime between the ages of five and seven, Eliphalet's father died; when Eliphalet was seven years old his mother remarried. Young Eliphalet enlisted in the military at sixteen, and married at nineteen.

Eliphalet Maxfield fought in the French and Indian War, from 4 May 1761 to 6 January 1762, in Capt. Henry Young Brown's company from Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts.^[4]

Eliphalet Maxfield's marriage to Lydia Jones, on 29 March 1764, occurred in Newton, New Hampshire, but appeared on the records of Sandwich, New Hampshire. Sandwich was first settled in 1767, and Eliphalet was not one of the first settlers. But they soon moved there, and Eliphalet Maxfield was called "of Sandwich" on a deed in 1769, which can be summarized as follows:

• 22 August 1769, Nathaniel Maxfield of Kensington, tanner, Eliphalet Maxfield of Sandwich, yeoman, and Elizabeth Maxfield, singlewoman of Kensington, sold to Nathaniel Dole of Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay, yeoman, for £ 18, land from "the estate of our father Eliphalet Maxfield, late of South Hampton, deceased; the part of sd estate set off to our Grandmother Maxfield for the right of Dowry in her husband's estate; sd parcel in South Hampton.^[5]

Eliphalet Maxfield signed at Sandwich in June of 1776, "The Association" in support of Revolution against Britain.^[6] The family resided at Sandwich at the time of the 1790 census. They moved to Billymead, Caledonia County, Vermont (name later changed to Sutton), where Eliphalet and two of his sons, Eliphalet and Jacob, took the freeman's oath on 4 July 1794.^[7] He was reported at Sutton on the 1800 census. However the family did not cease to be connected to Sandwich, where the name appeared again on the 1810 census.

Eliphalet Maxfield became active in the Freewill Baptist Church. As "Elder Eliphalet Maxfield" he founded the church of that denomination in Sutton on 30 July 1800,^[8] the first church of any denomination in that town. He was ordained as an evangelist on 29 August 1802 at Wheelock, Caledonia County, the day after the organization of the Hardwick Quarterly Meeting of the Freewill Baptist Church.^[9] Eliphalet was set apart "for the work Whereunto the Lord would have him."^[10]

The 1790 census reported this family at Sandwich,^[11] the 1800 census at Billymead.^[12] They could be explained as follows:

The absence of a place for Benjamin, Moses and Dorothy, and a lack of any other record of them, leads one to believe that they died young. Eliphalet Maxfield, Junior, was reported the head of his own household at Sandwich in 1800. Jacob, age 28 in 1800, cannot be accounted for.

The 1810 census reported households of Eliphalet Maxfield, Eliphalet, Jr., Jacob and Joseph, all at Sandwich. The household of Eliphalet consisted of a male, 26-44 and a female over 45.^[13] The female could be Lydia, age 70. I cannot identify the other person. It could be that the census taker put Eliphalet's age in the wrong column. On the other hand, census takers sometimes listed households under the name of the husband and father, even when he was absent or deceased.

I have no further information on Eliphalet and his wife Lydia beyond the 1810 census.

Eliphalet Maxfield and his wife Lydia Jones had the following children:

1. BENJAMIN⁵ MAXFIELD b. on 25 August 1764;^[14] no further record.
2. HANNAH⁵ MAXFIELD b. on April 1765;^[15] m. at Sandwich on 18 January 1789 SIMON BRIAR.^[16]
3. ELIZABETH⁵ MAXFIELD "Belle" or "Betty" b. perh. at Sandwich on 16 January 1768;^[17] d. at Sandwich on 10 April 1855;^[18] m. at Sandwich on 4 December 1791 JOEL COOK,^[19] b. abt. 1767-8, d. at Sandwich on 3 November 1857.^[20]
4. ELIPHALET⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 22 July 1770.
5. JACOB⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 20 March 1772.
6. LYDIA⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 22 December 1774;^[21] d. at Sandwich on 8 December 1862;^[22] m. at Sandwich on 28 October 1802 ISAAC QUIMBY,^[23] b. at Sandwich on 11 January 1780,^[24] d. at Sandwich on 15 July 1854,^[25] child of Sarah Quimby Bean.
7. MOSES⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 20 September 1776;^[26] no further record.
8. DOROTHY⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 22 July 1779;^[27] no further record.
9. JOSEPH⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Sandwich on 5 November 1783.

¹Vital Records of South Hampton, New Hampshire, 1743-1886 (N.p.: The Historical Committee of the South Hampton Friends of the Library, 1970), 6.
²New Hampshire, State of, Division of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire, New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 9853, Marriage, Maxfield-Jones, 1764; digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 24 January 2017).
³Vital Records of South Hampton, 4.
⁴George Wingate Chase, The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts (Haverhill, Massachusetts: by the author, 1861, reprint, Somersworth, New Hampshire: Haverhill Historical Society, 1983), 359.
⁵Deeds, 101:354; digital images, Rockingham County Registry of Deeds (nhdeeds/rockingham : accessed 2012).
⁶Emily S. Wilson, ed., Inhabitants of New Hampshire 1776 (Lambertville, New Jersey: Hunterdon House, 1983), 75.
⁷J. E. Willard, "Sutton," Vermont Historical Gazeteer: A Local History of All the Towns in the State, Abby Maria Hemmenway, comp. (n.p.: n.p., 1867–1891), 29.
⁸Ibid., 14.
⁹Gideon Albert Burgess and John T. Ward, Free Baptist Cyclopaedia (Boston: Free Baptist Cyclopaedia Co., 1889), 389; digital images, Google, (books.google.com : accessed 2013.
¹⁰Willard, "Sutton", 14.
¹¹First Census of the United States: 1790, population, Sandwich, Strafford County, New Hampshire, 5:137; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹²Second Census of the United States: 1800, population, Billymead, Caledonia County, Vermont, 51:237; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹³Third Census of the United States: 1810, population, Sandwich, Strafford County, New Hampshire, 25:629; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹⁴New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card, Birth, Benjamin Maxfield, 1764.
¹⁵Ibid., Birth, Hannah Maxfield, 1765.
¹⁶French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass., New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, New Hampshire, about 1952.
¹⁷New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card, Birth, Bette Maxfield, 1768.
¹⁸French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass.
¹⁹New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, , Cook-Maxfield, 1791.
²⁰French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass.
²¹New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card, Birth, Lidia Maxfield, 1774.
^22/A>Skinners Corners Cemetery, North Sandwich, Sandwich, Carroll County, New Hampshire, Find a Grave, digital images (findagrave.com : accessed 14 October 2013), Lydia Quinby; Created and photo by: Margo Reasner.
23New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, Marriage: Quinby-Maxfield, 1802.
²⁴Henry Cole Quinby, The Quinby-Quimby Family of Sandwich, New Hampshire (New York: Tuttle, 1923), 183.
²⁵Skinners Corners Cemetery, North Sandwich, Isaac Quinby; Created and photo by: Margo Reasner.
²⁶New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card, Birth, Moses Maxfield, 1776.
²⁷Ibid., Birth, Dorothy Maxfield, 1779.

Chase, George Wingate. The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts. Haverhill, Massachusetts: by the author, 1861, reprint, Somersworth, New Hampshire: Haverhill Historical Society, 1983.

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

Quinby, Henry Cole. The Quinby-Quimby Family of Sandwich, New Hampshire. New York: Tuttle, 1923.

Rockingham County Registry of Deeds. "Land Records." Digital images. Rockingham County Registry of Deeds. nhdeeds/rockingham : 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.

Skinners Corners, North Sandwich, Carroll County, New Hampshire. Find a Grave. Digital images. findagrave.com : 2013.

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.

Vital Records of South Hampton, New Hampshire, 1743-1886. N.p.: The Historical Committee of the South Hampton Friends of the Library, 1970.

Ward, Gideon Albert Burgess and John T. Free Baptist Cyclopaedia. Boston: Free Baptist Cyclopaedia Co., 1889. Digital images. books.google.com : 2013.

Willard, J. E. "Sutton." Vermont Historical Gazeteer: A Local History of All the Towns in the State. Abby Maria Hemmenway, comp.. N.p.: n.p., 1867–1891.

Wilson, Emily S., editor. Inhabitants of New Hampshire 1776. Lambertville, New Jersey: Hunterdon House, 1983.

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.