Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Third Generation

TIMOTHY³ MAXFIELD (Timothy², John¹)was born at Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, on 12 September 1708^[1] the firstborn son of Timothy Maxfield and his first wife Lydia Sherman. He died probably at Dartmouth probably some time between 1790 and 1800. He married at Swansea, Bristol County, on 19 December 1734 PATIENCE DRINKWATER.^[2] She was born at Swansea about 1713, a daughter of Thomas Drinkwater and his wife Elizabeth Haskell. She died probably at Dartmouth probably between 1790 and 1800.

The estimate of their deaths between 1790 and 1800 is based on their being reported in the 1790 Census, but absent from the 1800 Census.

Patience Drinkwater's estimated birth date is based on the research of Ruth Wilder Sherman, who theorized that each of the eight children sold their share of a piece of property inherited from their father, when they reached their twenty-first birthday. Patience sold her share on 10 December 1734.^[3]

Patience was the eighth of eight children of Thomas Drinkwater and his wife Elisabeth Haskell. When she was born, Her father was at least 33 years old, her mother about 41. By the time Patience was two years old, her father had died. When Patience was about four years old, her mother married John Dudley.^[4] I have no further information on her mother and step-father, and do not know where, or in whose home, Patience grew up. When she sold her property in 1734 she was described as a resident of Swansea. Her marriage to Timothy Maxfield took place in Swansea, and was also recorded at Dartmouth.

Descendants of Timothy Maxfield and Pateince Drinkwater can claim descent from a Mayflower Pilgrim. This line is traced in volume 3 of Mayflower Families.^[5] The line of descent is: George Soule¹, Patience (Soule) Haskell², Elizabeth (Haskell) (Drinkwater) Dudley³, Patience (Drinkwater) Maxfield⁴.

Timothy Maxfield participated frequently in the purchase and sale of property in the Town of Dartmouth, as follows:

• 27 June 1734, Phillip Mosher of Dartmouth, cooper, sold to Timothy Maxfield, Junior, yeoman for £ 13 6s 8d, a tract of Cedar Swamp in Dartmouth.^[6]
• 10 September 1759, Richard Crow of Dartmouth, cooper, sold to Timothy Maxfield, junior of Dartmouth, yeoman, for £ 48 , a tract of land in Dartmouth on west side of the way that leads from the head of Acushnet River to Howland Ferry, about 28 acres.^[7]
• 28 June 1762, Nathaniel Howland of Dartmouth, yeoman, sold to John Allen and Timothy Maxfield of Dartmouth, yeomen, for £ 60, a tract of Cedar Swamp in Dartmouth in Apponaganset Great Cedar Swamp.^[8]
• 3 July 1765, Jacob Shearman of Middleborough, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, sold to Timothy Maxfield, Jr., of Dartmouth, yeoman for £ 7 10s , a tract of cedar swamp in Dartmouth in Ponagansett Great Swamp, about 3 acres.^[9]
• 11 September 1766, Timothy Maxfield, Jr., of Dartmouth, sold to Edmund Maxfield of Dartmouth, cooper, for £ 42, a tract in Dartmouth on the west side of the highway that runs from the head of Agushnet River to Howland Ferry, bounded on south by land of Timothy Maxfield, Jr.; about 50 acres; Patience Maxfield, wife of Timothy Maxfield, Jr., quits her right of dower.^[10]
• 15 September 1768, Timothy Maxfield of Dartmouth, yeoman, sold to his son Edmond Maxfield of Dartmouth, cooper, for £ 54, a tract in Dartmouth of about 8 acres, bounded by the highway that runs from head of Acushnet River to Smith Mills; signed Timothy Maxfield, Patience Maxfield.^[11]
• 25 Apr 1777, Joshua Allen of Dartmouth, yeoman, sold to Timothy Maxfield, junior, of Dartmouth, yeoman, for £ 159, a parcel in Dartmouth, 26 ½ acres; witness John Maxfield .^[12]
• 30 January 1778, Timothy Maxfield of Dartmouth, yeoman, and Joshua Allen of Holden, Worcester County, Massachusetts, sold to William Tallman of Dartmouth, merchant, for £ 30 , a parcel of Cedar Swamp, one lot and a half, in Dartmouth, in Apponeganset Great Swamp.^[13]
• 3 Ferbruary 1781, Gamaliel Bryant of Dartmouth, sold to Timothy Maxfield, Jun., of Dartmouth, for £ 16 4s, half of 10 acres of land in Dartmouth.^[14]
• 19 September 1787, Timothy Maxfield of Dartmouth, yeoman, sold to Patrick Maxfield of New Bedford, Bristol County, mariner, for £ 112, a lot with house and barn in Dartmouth, on the east side of Smith Mills River, adjoining Edmund Maxfield and John Maxfield, 33 acres.^[15]
• 22 November 1788, Timothy Maxfield of Dartmouth, yeoman, sold to Patrick Maxfield of New Bedford, mariner, for £ 18 , a lot in Dartmouth in Aponegansett Great Cedar Swamp, 4 acres.^[16]

The Apponegansett Swamp, variously spelled in the above documents, is located in Dartmouth, near the present location of the New Bedford Airport. The Acushnet River, variously spelled above, widens into the New Bedford Harbor. In some of the above transactions, Timothy Maxfield was transferring property to his sons Edmund and Patrick.

The 1790 Census reported the Timothy Maxfield household in Dartmouth, consisting of a male over 16 and a female.^[17] That census had separate listings for their sons Edmund and Timothy at Dartmouth and Zadock and Patrick at New Bedford, which had in 1787 been created from territory formerly in Dartmouth.

Timothy Maxfield and his wife Patience Drinkwater had the following children:

1. ELIZABETH⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 6 January 1735/6^[18] ; d. on 1820;^[19] m. at Dartmouth on 15 September 1768 WILLIAM TRIPP^[20] (his 3rd), b. at Dartmouth on 31 October 1729,^[21] d. at Dartmouth on 25 June 1819,^[22] child of Othniel and Mary Tripp. William had previously m (1) at Dartmouth on 8 June 1752 LYDIA SHERMAN^[23] who was b. at Dartmouth on 18 September 1733^[24] and d. at Dartmouth on 15 January 1757;^[25] he m(2) at Dartmouth on 26 October 1758 MERIAH HAMMOND^[26] who was b. at Dartmouth on 9 March 1729,^[27] d. before 1768.
2. EDMUND⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 1 January 1736/7.
3. LYDIA⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 7 August 1739;^[28] m. at Dartmouth on 6 November 1763 DANIEL SHERMAN,^[29] b. at Dartmouth on 3 December 1743.^[30], d. at Dartmouth on 20 April 1823.^[31]
4. ZADOCK⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 27 October 1740.
5. PATRICK⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 28 September 1742.
6. TIMOTHY⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 8 January 1745/6.
7. PATIENCE⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 12 July 1748;^[32] d. at Westport, Bristol County, on 1822;^[33] m. at Dartmouth on 27 October 1768 JONATHAN SHERMAN Jr.,^[34] b. at Dartmouth on 18 December 1745,^[35] d. at Westport on 1822.^[36]
8. THOMAS⁴ MAXFIELD b. at Dartmouth on 14 January 1754;^[37] m. at Dartmouth on 11 August 1777 (int. Dartmouth 4 February 1777) JUDITH HATHAWAY,^[38] b. at Dartmouth on 5 January 1760,^[39] d. at Dartmouth on 17 July 1779.^[40] Thomas fought in the Revolutionary War: 27 September 1777 to 29 October 1777, on a secret expedition to Rhode Island ( Capt. Manasseh Kempton's co., Col. Freeman's regt.), and 3 August 1780 to 8 August 1780 on alarm at Rhode Island ( Capt. Avery Parker's (1st) co., Col. John Hathaway's (2d Bristol Co.) regt.).^[41]

¹Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1929, 1929, 1930), 1:159.
²H. L. Peter Rounds, editor, Vital Records of Swansea, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historical Genealogical Society, 1992), 206; Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:314.
³Ruth Wilder Sherman, "The Strange Case of Warren and Walter Drinkwater of Freetown, MA," The American Genealogist, 57 (1981): 51.
⁴Ibid., 53.
⁵Ann Borden Harding, ed., Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol 3, George Soule (Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1980).
⁶Bristol County, Massachusetts, Deeds, 23:456, accessed 2013; Bristol County Court House, Taunton, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).
⁷Ibid., 46:147-48.
⁸Ibid., 46:227-28.
⁹Ibid., 47:560.
¹⁰Ibid., 50:359.
¹¹Ibid., 52:255-56.
¹²Ibid., 60:109-10.
¹³Ibid., 59:436.
¹⁴Ibid., 60:215.
¹⁵Ibid., 66:303.
¹⁶Ibid., 69:180.
¹⁷First Census of the United States: 1790, population, Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 4:195; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 14 September 2012).
¹⁸Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:158.
¹⁹Harding, George Soule, 363.
²⁰Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:312.
²¹Ibid., 1:284.
²²Harding, George Soule, 363.
²³Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:514.
²⁴Ibid., 1:227.
²⁵Ibid., 3:75.
²⁶Ibid., 2:514.
²⁷Ibid., 1:105.
²⁸Ibid., 1:158.
²⁹Ibid., 2:313.
³⁰Ibid., 1:221.
³¹Harding, George Soule, 364.
³²Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:158.
³³Harding, George Soule, 365.
³⁴Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:313.
³⁵Ibid., 1:226.
³⁶Harding, George Soule, 365.
³⁷Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:159.
³⁸Ibid., 2:314.
³⁹Elizabeth Starr Versailles, Hathaways of America (Northampton, MA: Gazette, 1970), 153.
⁴⁰Ibid.
⁴¹Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary, ed., Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War (Boston: Wright L. Potter, 1902), 10:368.

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

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

Harding, Ann Borden, ed.. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol 3, George Soule. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1980.

Massachusetts. Bristol County. Deeds. Bristol County Court House, Taunton, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).

Rounds, H. L. Peter, editor. Vital Records of Swansea, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. Boston: New England Historical Genealogical Society, 1992.

Sherman, Ruth Wilder. "The Strange Case of Warren and Walter Drinkwater of Freetown, MA." The American Genealogist 57 (1981): 50-54.

Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1929, 1929, 1930

Versailles, Elizabeth Starr. Hathaways of America. Northampton, Massachusetts: Gazette, 1970.

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.