George Little (1618 - 1692)

Born 1618 in London, London, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Mar 1692 at about age 74 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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George Little migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

This profile is part of the Little Name Study.

Biography from this page: http://www.babcockancestry.com/books/chandler/041little6gen.shtml

The first Little in our family to emigrate to America was George Little who came to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1640. He is said to have worked for a Mr. John Woodbridge, who had paid his passage in exchange for building fences of logs placed end-wise around the property. In September of 1650 he bought the freehold right of John Osgood, Senior who had moved to Andover, Massachusetts. He continued to add to his land holdings: fourteen acres from Nicholas Noyes; ten acres of upland from Thomas Coleman, and in 1651 in partnership with Thomas Brown, the three hundred acre farm owned by Stephen Dummer at Birchen Meadows. In a town in meeting in 1670 it was voted "that the Selectman shall take care that George Little fence in no more land than his due."

It is believed that he had lands in Stonington, Connecticut, Woodbridge, New Jersey, and Concord, Vermont. George Little served on juries in Ipswich and Salem, was an appraiser of the estates of John Sawyer and William Stevens, and the executor of Nathaniel Cheney's estate and the overseer for John Rolfe's.

He was a tailor by trade, but like most of his countrymen, devoted most of his time to agriculture. He was renowned for his physical strength: there is a tradition that he could carry a plough on his shoulder from his home to his farm on Turkey Hill, three miles away.

The early days in Newbury were marked by religious dissension. George Little remained on the side of the pastor in the numerous disputes, but after the settlement of the grievances joined a Baptist Church with his wife in Boston, and later a small Baptist church in Newbury.

He married first Alice Poor, who had sailed for New England in May of 1638 in the Bevis. They had five children: Sarah, who died as a baby, Joseph, John, Moses and Sarah. Alice died December 1, 1680 after many years of illness, and George married second Eleanor, the widow of Thomas Barnard on July 19, 1681. She died November 27, 1694, a few months after his death, 15 Mar 1692. They are buried in the graveyard adjoining the first church.

Sources

• Hoyt, David W. The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury Massachusetts (Providence, Rhode Island, 1897) Page 49
• Little, George. The Descendants of George Little, Who Came to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640 (The Author, Auburn, Maine, 1882) Page ?
• Coffin, Joshua. A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, from 1635 to 1845 (S.G. Drake in Boston, 1845) Page 32 & Page 100 & Page 135/
• Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s (Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012) Newbury, Massachusetts; Year: 1640
• Dodd, Jordan. Massachusetts Marriages, 1633-1850 (Liahona Research)
• Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp. Massachusetts Census, 1790-1890 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999). Microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes.
• Emery, Sarah. Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian (W. H. Huse, Newburyport, Mass., 1879)
• Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Vol. II CREA Date: 29 Jul 20 American Genealogical-Biographical Index, Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, CT, USA