Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fourth Generation

JOSEPH⁴ MAXFIELD (Joseph^3-2, John¹) was born at Salisbury, Essex County, Massachuestts, on 28 January 1767^[1] a son of Joseph and Love Maxfield. He died on 16 March 1845.^[2] He married at Weare, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, on 1 December 1790 DOROTHY WORTHEN.^[3] She was born at Weare on 16 April 1771,^[4] a daughter of Samuel and Deborah Worthen. She died on 9 December 1844.^[5]

Joseph grew up in Salisbury, the second of eight children. Sometime between his eleventh and seventeenth years, he moved north with his family to Weare. Joseph married a young woman from Weare, and they moved further north, to Warner, Hillsborough County, where they raised a family. They were farmers.

The Joseph Maxfield family appeared in the Census records at Warner in 1800,^[6] 1810,^[7] 1820^[8] and 1830,^[9] and at nearby Bradford, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, in 1840.^[10] These records only indicate the numbers of persons in various age and sex categories. Below are those records and possible identifications of family members:

It is not surprising that a census taker would put husband and wife in the same category without checking, if they appeared close in age. In these records three unidentified persons appear in more than one census, suggesting that Joseph and Dorothy could possibly have had other children.

Joseph Maxfield participated in two property transactions in nearby Sullivan County, New Hampshire:

• 9 December 1833, Samuel Peasley of Newbury, Merrimack County, husbandman, received a loan of $162 from Joseph Maxfield and John Withington, Jr of Warner, yeomen, mortgaging a 54 acre parcel in Goshen, Sullivan County. Peaslee to repay $112 in four years.
• 9 December 1837, Samuel Peaslee of Newbury sold to Joseph Maxfield of Warner and John Withington Jr. of Warner, husbandmen, for $162, the 54 acre parcel in Goshen.^[11]

An item which may in some way be related to this is the granting of guardianship over a Levi Maxfield, minor over 14 years of age, child of Betsey Withington late of Warner deceased, to Jonathan Peasley of Newbury, in September 1847.^[12] I cannot otherwise identify this Levi Maxfield, although he shows up in Gallatin County, Montana, Census records, from 1870 to 1910.

Dorothy "Dolly" Maxfield died on 9 December 1844; Joseph Maxfield died on 16 March 1845. They are both buried at the Baptist Church Cemetery at Bradford.^[13]

Joseph Maxfield and his wife Dorothy Worthen had the following children:^[14]

1. SARAH PAGE⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Warner bet. 1790 and 1794; m. at Warner on 12 June 1831 JOHN HALL FLANDERS,^[15] b. at Warner on 17 March 1808, d. at Penacook, Merrimack Co., on 26 February 1865.^[16]
2. JOSEPH⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Warner abt 1792/3.
3. LOVE⁵ MAXFIELD b. prob. at Warner bet. 1795 and 1800; m. at Warner on 31 August 1816 JOHN WITHINGTON Jr,^[17] b. at Henniker, Hillsborough Co., on 24 January 1801.^[18]
4. perhaps DOROTHY⁵ MAXFIELD b. bet. 1795 and 1800; m. at Warner on 25 June 1820 THOMAS BARNARD Jr.^[19]
5. LEVI WORTHEN⁵ MAXFIELD b. at Warner on 2 September 1800.
6. perhaps unidentified "A"⁵ MAXFIELD (male) b. bet. 1805 and 1810.
7. perhaps unidentified "B"⁵ MAXFIELD (female) b. bet. 1805 and 1810.
8. perhaps unidentified "C"⁵ MAXFIELD (female) b. bet. 1805 and 1810.
9. probably SAMUEL W.⁵ MAXFIELD b. at New Hampshire abt. 1813/4.

¹Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915), 152.
²Baptist Church Cemetery, Bradford, Merrimack Co., NH, database, Find a Grave (findagrave.com : accessed 2011), .
³State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index to Marriages Up to 1900; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁴French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass., New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, NH, about 1952.
⁵Baptist Church Cemetery, Bradford NH.
⁶Second Census of the United States: 1800, population, Warner, Hillsboro Co., NH, 20:634; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : 2012 accessed ).
⁷Third Census of the United States: 1810, population, Bradford, Hillsboro Co., NH, 24:522; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
⁸Fourth Census of the United States: 1820, population, Warner, Hillsboro Co., NH, 61:620; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
⁹Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population, Warner, Merrimack Co., NH, 76:228; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹⁰Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Bradford, Merrimack Co., NH, 240:103; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹¹Deeds, 22:358-59; digital images, Sullivan County Registry of Deeds (nhdeeds.com/sullivan : accessed 2012).
¹²Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Probate Records; "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973," digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 2014); docket # 2786.
¹³Baptist Church Cemetery, Bradford NH.
¹⁴Many of the birth dates, especially where they are expressed in ranges, are derived from the census records cited above.
¹⁵State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Vital Records: Bride's Index, 1640-1900; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
¹⁶Edith Flanders Dunbar, The Flanders Family from Europe to America (Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1935), 487; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 30 January 2013.
¹⁷New Hampshire Bride's Index.
¹⁸Frederic Scherer Withington, "Henry Withington of Dorchester, Mass., and Some of His Descendants," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 75-76 (1921–22): 75:252.
¹⁹New Hampshire Marriage Index. French identified this marriage record with Dorothy the child of Currier Maxfield and Mary Carr. But the marriage is too early for her and in the wrong town. I speculate that an otherwise unidentifed daughter of this family, indicated in census records, could have been named after the mother, and is the right age for this marriage record, and in the right town.

Baptist Church Cemetery, Bradford, Merrimack Co., NH. Database. Find a Grave. findagrave.com : 2011.

Dunbar, Edith Flanders. The Flanders Family from Europe to America. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1935. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

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

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

State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH. Vital Records: Bride's Index, 1640-1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

ญญ________. Index to Marriages Up to 1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

Sullivan County Registry of Deeds. "Land Records." Digital images. Sullivan County Registry of Deeds. nhdeeds.com/sullivan : 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.

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

Withington, Frederic Scherer. "Henry Withington of Dorchester, Mass., and Some of His Descendants." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 75-76 (1921–22): 75:142-54, 197-216, 246-73; 76:6-27.

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.