Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fifth Generation

JOSEPH ROWE⁵ MAXFIELD (Nathaniel⁴, Eliphalet³, Nathaniel², John¹) was born at Loudon, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, on 31 March 1785^[1] a son of Nathaniel Maxfield and his first wife Mehitable Rowe. He died on 1 March 1845.^[2] He married at Canterbury, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, on 7 April 1811 SARAH JANE HILL.^[3] She was born at Loudon on 8 August 1795,^[4] and died at Concord, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, before 27 April 1875 (probate). Joseph Rowe Maxfield and his brother Nathan Norton Maxfield married sisters, Sarah Jane Hill and Hannah Hill daughters of Samuel Hill and Hannah Longley.

Joseph Maxfield grew up in Loudon. However he was baptized at the Congregational Church of Epping, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, his parents' former home, on 13 May 1785.^[5] Joseph was the tenth of thirteen children. When he was eight years old his last sibling was born and his mother died. A year later he acquired a step-mother. According to their marriage record, Joseph and Sarah both came from Canterbury and the wedding was celebrated by Elder Young of Canterbury.^[6] However, both were born at Loudon, and lived there before and after marriage. Early land records, in 1815, called Joseph Maxfield a "cordwainer," which is a shoemaker. As his father was a tanner, they were both workers in leather. However later records do not list that occupation, and in later years he was a farmer. Sometime between the 1830 and 1840 censuses, this family moved west from Loudon to Springfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, where they farmed.

Joseph Maxfield participated in the buying and selling of land in Loudon and Springfield:

• 25 July 1808, Jacob Joy of Madbury, Strafford County, New Hampshire, blacksmith, sold to Joseph R. Maxfield of Loudon, yeoman, for $200, all except 14 acres of lot # 136, in 1st division of 100 acre lots in Loudon.^[7]
• 11 August 1815, Joseph R. Maxfield of Loudon, cordwainer, sold to Levi French, Jr., of Loudon, Gentleman, for $100, part of lot # 136 of the first division of land in Loudon.^[8]
• 1 November 1815, Joseph R. Maxfield of Loudon, cordwainer, sold to Jonathan Clough, Jr., of Loudon, Esq., for $80, part of lot # 136 of first division of land in Loudon.^[9]
• 9 September 1820, Samuel Hill of Loudon sold to Joseph R. Maxfield of Loudon for $10, a parcel of land in Loudon adjoining land owned by Maxfield.^[10]
• 23 March 1843, James Hodge of Springfield [son-in-law of Joseph R. Maxfield] sold to Joseph R. Maxfield of Springfield, yeoman for $827, a parcel in the town of Springfield, the whole of 100 acre lot #7, half of lot #8 in 7th division of Springfield town.^[11]
• 23 July 1843, Joseph Maxfield of Springfield sold to John F. Carter of Springfield for $500, the farm on which he lived, which he had purchased from James Hodge in 1843. Sarah Maxfield wife of Joseph relinquished her right to dower. Sarah Maxfield signed with a mark, Joseph with a signature.^[12]

I have not been able to find this family in the 1820 census. They were reported at Louden in the 1830 census and at Springfield in the 1840 census. A possible explanation of their families as reported follows:^[13]

I believe this is the best explanation of the data, in spite of the mark for James Hodge being in the wrong column. Son Joseph was away in the Army; daughter Martha was married, and her family reported elsewhere in the census. The Hodges did have a son who, based on later censuses, would have been one year old in 1840. James Hodge had purchased his farm at Springfield on 1 April 1840, two months before the census. Three years later he sold the farm to his father-in-law. So they could have been living together on the farm.

Son Joseph Maxfield enlisted in the Army at Schenectady, New York, on 26 September, 1839. At enlistment he was described as a carpenter, born at Loudon, 28 years old, with hazle eyes, brown hair, dark complexion, and 5' 7" tall. He was recruited by a Lt. Myers for a term of 5 years. However he deserted on 20 February 1843.^[14] I find no further record of him. When his mother's estate was brought to probate court in 1875, the list of her children included "Joseph Maxfield of parts unknown if living."

Joseph Rowe Maxfield died 1 March 1845, and is buried at Old Pleasant View Cemetery in Springfield.^[15]

I have not found widow Sarah Jane Maxfield in the 1850 census. In 1860 Sarah Maxfield, 63, was reported at Concord (East Concord Post Office), with several other persons in the household of Isaac Emery, 52, farmer.^[16] In 1870 she was reported at Hopkinton (Contoocook Post Office), Merrimack County, with her daughter Hannah in a three generation household:^[17]

Sarah Jane (Hill) Maxfield died in 1875 without a will. Her probate record in Merrimack County began on 27 April 1875.^[18] Her children were listed as:

• Jane Hodge of Concord
• Hannah H. Blake of Hopkinton
• Samuel Maxfield of Springfield
• Joseph Maxfield of parts unknown if living
• Martha St. Clair of Richmond, NH

Joseph Rowe Maxfield and his wife Sarah Hill had the following children:

1. JOSEPH⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Loudon on 18 July 1911;^[19] no further record after his desertion from Army on 20 February 1843.
2. MARTHA⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Loudon on 7 January 1815;^[20] d. at Richmond, Cheshire Co., NH, on 24 May 1833;^[21] m. at Loudon on 1 September 1834 WINTHROP SAINT CLAIR,^[22] b. at Canterbury on 7 May 1802, d. at Richmond on 15 June 1874, child of Noah and Lavine (Gault) Saint Clair.^[23] He was in religion a Universalist, in politics a Democrat and by occupation a mill man.^[24]
3. SARAH JANE⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Loudon on 17 November 1817; d. at Concord on 31 March 1901;^[25] m. at Canterbury on 7 July 1838 JAMES HODGE,^[26] b. at New Hampshire abt. 1807/8.^[27]
4. SAMUEL HILL⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Loudon on 15 September 1821.
5. HANNAH HILL⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Loudon on 29 January 1827; d. at Concord on 10 February 1909;^[28] m. at Hopkinton on 14 November 1847 JOHN BLAKE,^[29] b. at Canada on 1823, d. on 1900.^[30]

¹State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index of Births to 1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
²Old Pleasant View Cemetery, Springfield, Sullivan Co., NH, database, Find a Grave (findagrave.com : accessed 2012), .
³State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index to Marriages Up to 1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
⁴Sylvia A. Hill, to Charles A. Maxfield, e-mail, 5 August 2001, "Vera Ann Maxfield--'untitled'"; privately held.
⁵Elizabeth Wright, "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652, and Some of His Descendants," The Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record (1928–1930): 7:23.
⁶New Hampshire, Index to Marriages Up to 1900.
⁷Deeds, 185:182; digital images, Rockingham County Registry of Deeds (nhdeeds/rockingham : accessed 2012).
⁸Ibid., 218:1
⁹Ibid., 217:40
¹⁰Ibid., 228:87
¹¹Deeds, 33:505; digital images, Sullivan County Registry of Deeds (nhdeeds.com/sullivan : accessed 2012).
¹²Ibid., 38:410
¹³Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population, Loudon, Merrimack Co., NH, 76:81; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Springfield, Sullivan Co., NH, 244:113; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹⁴"Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914," digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
¹⁵Old Pleasant View Cemetery, Springfield, Sullivan Co., NH, .
¹⁶Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, Concord Ward 2, Merrimack Co., NH, 675:8, 67; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
¹⁷Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Hopkinton, Merrimack Co., NH, 846:360A, 191; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
¹⁸Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Probate Records, 54:205 and 57:7; "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973," digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 2014).
¹⁹Hill to Charles A. Maxfield, e-mail, 5 August 2001.
²⁰New Hampshire Index of Births to 1900.
²¹Evergreen Cemetery, Winchester, Cheshire Co., NH, database, Find a Grave (findagrave.com : accessed 2014), .
²²State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Vital Records: Bride's Index, 1640-1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
²³Evergreen Cemetery, Winchester, Cheshire Co., NH.
²⁴French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass., New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, NH, about 1952.
²⁵New Hampshire, Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, NH, New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947; digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org : accessed 2 September 2011).
²⁶New Hampshire Vital Records: Bride's Index, 1640-1900.
²⁷Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Concord, Merrimack Co., NH, 435:95B, 1458; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2014).
²⁸New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947; Contoocook Village Cemetery, Contoocook, Merrimack Co., NH, database, Find a Grave (findagrave.com : accessed 2012), .
²⁹New Hampshire Bride's Index, 1640-1900; Pauline Johnson Oesterlin, ed., Hopkinton, New Hampshire, Vital Records (Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1998), 1:140.
³⁰Contoocook Village Cemetery, Contoocook, Merrimack Co., NH.

Contoocook Village Cemetery, Contoocook, Merrimack Co., NH. Database. Find a Grave. findagrave.com : 2012.

Evergreen Cemetery, Winchester, Cheshire Co., NH. Database. Find a Grave. findagrave.com : 2014.

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

Hill, Sylvia A., to Charles A. Maxfield. "Vera Ann Maxfield--'untitled'." E-mail from,5 August 2001. Privately held. See Note below

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

New Hampshire, State of, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH. Index of Births to 1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

______. Vital Records: Bride's Index, 1640-1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

________. New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947. Digital images. Family Search. familysearch.org : 2011.

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

Oesterlin, Pauline Johnson, ed. Hopkinton, New Hampshire, Vital Records. Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1998.

Old Pleasant View Cemetery, Springfield, Sullivan Co., NH. Database. Find a Grave. findagrave.com : 2012.

"Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914." Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

Rockingham County Registry of Deeds. "Land Records." Digital images. Rockingham County Registry of Deeds. nhdeeds/rockingham : 2012.

Sullivan County Registry of Deeds. "Land Records." Digital images. Sullivan County Registry of Deeds. nhdeeds.com/sullivan : 2012.

United States Department of the Census. 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.

________. Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2014.

________. Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

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.

Sylvia A. Hill sent to me a list of the children of Joseph R and Sarah Jane (Hill) Maxfield, with birth dates. She wrote on 6 August 2001:

The information I listed was written by Mary Susan George Maxfield . . . on a piece of paper and given to her only surviving child, Vera Ann Maxfield, in the Maxfield Family Bible, to the best of my deciphering in 1924 which would have been the year Vera's brother died from a head injury trying to stop a runaway train. There is a notation by Joseph's name in Grammie's handwriting (Vera) that says "my grandfather." The bible is now in the possession of my oldest brother Lee Huntoon.