JOHN3 MAXFIELD (Timothy2, John1)was born at Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts on 16 August 1726[1] a son of Timothy Maxfield and his first wife Lydia Sherman. He died probably at Dartmouth between 4 August 1800 and 2 October 1802. He married first at Dartmouth on 2 September 1756 DINAH SHERMAN.[2] She was born at Dartmouth on 11 February 1715,[3] a daughter of Isaac and Sarah Sherman. She died between 19 April 1770 and 21 September 1771. He married second, after filing intentions at Freetown, Bristol County, on 21 September 1771[4] and at Dartmouth on 25 September 1771[5] MEHETABLE (THURSTON) HARRISON. She was born at Freetown on 28 February 1737,[6] a daughter of Edward and Hannah Thurston. She died after 17 March 1803.
John Maxfield, the eighth of eight children, was born to parents both aged 44 years old. Some time in the next fourteen years his mother died, and when he was fourteen his father remarried. John did not marry until age thirty, to a bride aged forty-one years. Dinah (Sherman) Maxfield was living on 19 April 1770,[7] when she signed a deed which provided for the division of property inhereted by her and her three sisters from their father. She must have died soon after, as John Maxfield filed intentions to marry his second wife on 21 September 1771.
Mehetable Thurston had married FRANCIS HARRISON at Freetown on 2 November 1758;[8] at the time of marriage she was twenty-one years old. The Board of Selectmen of Freetown granted to Mehetable a bill of divorce, making it possible for her and John Maxfield to publish at Freetown on 21 September 1771 their intentions to marry. They published their intentions at Dartmouth four days later. Although no record of the marriage has been found, we assume they married soon after the latter date. John Maxfield brought to the marriage two sons, ages fifteen and twelve; there is no record of Mehetable having any children prior to that date. John was forty-five years old, Mehetable thirty-four. Together they had three children.
John and Mehetable Maxfield were living in Dartmouth at the time of the 1790 census,[9] which reported a household of six persons: one male over 16, one male under 16, and four females. This can be explained as John and Mehetable, their three daughters, and one unidentified boy. The 1800 census[10] reported an "empty nest" couple composing the household of John Maxfield of Dartmouth: one male and one female, both over 45 years of age.
John Maxfield participated frequently in the buying and selling of property in the Town of Dartmouth:
The above deeds describe John Maxfield as a husbandman from 1746 through 1765, an innholder in 1770 and 1772, and simply a yeoman from 1773 on.
John and Mehetable Maxfield were both living at the time of the census, on 4 August 1800. On 2 October 1802 John Maxfield was described as deceased in a deed distributing land among his heirs.[23] Mehetable Maxfield was still alive on 17 March 1803 when she signed a land transaction with some of her children.[24]
John Maxfield and his first wife Dinah Sherman had the following children
John Maxfield and his second wife Mehetable (Thurston) Harrison, had the following children:
1Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1929, 1929, 1930), 1:158.
2Ibid., 2:313.
3Ibid., 1:221.
4Helen Gurney Thomas, comp., Vital Records of Freetown, Massachusetts, 1686 Through 1890 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1988).
5Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:313.
6Thomas, Vital Records of Freetown.
7Bristol County, Massachusetts, Deeds, 53:144-46, accessed 30 June 2013; Bristol County Court House, Taunton, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).
8Thomas, Vital Records of Freetown.
9First Census of the United States: 1790, , population, Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 4:195; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
10Second Census of the United States: 1800, population, Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 19:661; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
11Bristol County, Massachusetts, Deeds, 36:58-59.
12Ibid., 41:496-97.
13Ibid., 44:456.
14Ibid., 48:105.
15Ibid., 53:224-25.
16Ibid., 83:63-64.
17Ibid., 72:508-09.
18Ibid., 60:158.
19Ibid., 60:158-59.
20Ibid., 77:137-38.
21Ibid., 72:517.
22Ibid., 83:392.
23Ibid., 82:544-45.
24Ibid., 82:487.
25Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:158.
26Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, "Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916," database, Family Search (familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2011).
27Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary, ed., Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War (Boston: Wright L. Potter, 1902), 10:367.
28Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:158.
29Ibid., 2:313.
30Ibid., 1:311.
31Ibid., 1:157.
32Apponagansett Friends Cemetery, Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, Find a Grave, digital images (findagrave.com : accessed 2 December 2012), Dorcas Chase; Created by: Jim Grasela, Photo added by J.King.
33Vital Records of Dartmouth, 2:312.
34Ibid., 1:57.
35John Carroll Chase, "Some of the Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 87-88 (1933–34): 87:245.
36Vital Records of Dartmouth, 1:158.
37Ibid., 2:313.
38Ibid., 1:313.
Apponagansett Friends Cemetery, Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Find a Grave. Digital images. findagrave.com : 2012.
Acushnet Cemetery, Acushnet, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Database. Find a Grave. findagrave.com : 2012.
Chase, John Carroll. "Some of the Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth, Mass.." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 87-88 (1933–34): 87:46-55, 120-141, 242-64, 314-42; 88:7-32, 105-28.
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.
Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. "Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916." Database. Family Search. familysearch.org : 2011.
Massachusetts. Bristol County. Deeds. Bristol County Court House, Taunton, Massachusetts (familysearch.org).
Thomas, Helen Gurney, comp. Vital Records of Freetown, Massachusetts, 1686 Through 1890. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1988.
United States, Department of the Census. First Census of the United States: 1790, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.
United States Department of the Census. Second Census of the United States: 1800, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.
Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1929, 1929, 1930.
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
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