User:Francissmall

autobiography unreferenced Francis Small was the son of Edward Small of Biddeford England, and it is believed he came to New England about 1652. He was baptized in England, October 6, 1625 and was a kinsman of Fernando Gorges.

Francis Small, may be regarded as the ancestor of the Small family of Maine. He came to America about 1632. He was baptized in England, October 6, 1625.

Francis Small was living in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1648, with his wife Elizabeth. In 1657 he was a resident of Falmouth, Maine. The earliest Indian deed of land in Falmouth was made July 27, 1657, by Scitterygussctt, to Francis Small. It reads thus : "Bee it knowne unto all men by these presents, that I Scittery- gussett of Casco Bay Sagamore, do hereby grant, sell &c all that upland and Marshes at Capissicke, Lying up along the Northcrne side of the river unto the head thereof & so to reach & extend unto ye river side of Amme- cungan." Francis Small bound himself "yearly to pay unto ye said Scitterygussett Sagamore, during his life, one Trading coate for Capussicke & one Gallone of Lyquors for Ammomingan."

On May 10, 1658, Francis Small assigned one-half of this land to John Phillips, of Boston. July 13, 1658, the "Inhabitants of Black Poynt, Bleu Point, Spurwink and Cascoe Bay owned themselves subject to the Government of Mass. Bay in N. E." Francis Small headed this list, and was one of the few whose names were written without a mark. November 2, 1658, he sold to Isaac Walker, of Boston, "the plantation lately bought of Richard Martyn, called Martyn's Point, over against Clapboard Island." He had a grant of one hundred acres of land in that part of Kittery called Newichawannock, also two hundred and two acres on eastern side of the Piscataqua river. (See deed to his son Daniel Small, of Truro, Mass., dated October 31, 1712.)

In the year 1659, Francis Small "was employed by Major Nicholas Shapleigh to purchase a certain great Ysland called Se- bascoe Diggin, lying against a Necke of land called Merriconeag." He built a house there "by order of Major Shapleigh and possessed the Ysland in his behalf." "This was called Small's Island." May 10, 1683, Francis Small, senior, aged about fifty- six, and his wife Elizabeth, aged about forty- nine, testified to the above facts. They had one child born there, which was the "first white child of English parents" born in that part of Maine. Francis Small was again attorney for Falmouth in 1663. He was living in Kittery in 1668. but he had a house and trading camp where the village of Cornish now is. This was doubtless the first house built in that town or in any part of the Ossipee lands.

"In the summer of 1668, Francis Small sold goods to the Newichawannoch tribe of Indians on credit, to be paid for in furs in the autumn ; but when the time of payment drew near the red men deemed it easier to kill Small than to pay him, and they decided to fire his house and shoot him when he came out to escape the flames. Captain "Sunday", the chief of the tribe, was friendly to Small, and told him what the Indians were to do, and advised him to flee for his life. Small thought the tale a cunningly devised fable to frighten him away in order to avoid payment ; but when night came, thinking it wise to be on the side of safety, he secreted himself in some pines on the hill near by, and watched through the long November night. With the coming of the dawn, a flame of fire shot up from the burning house, whereupon Small took flight and paused not until he reached his home in Kittery. Chief Sunday followed Small to Kittery, and there made good the loss, by selling to him the entire Ossipee tract of land. Ossipee has also been spelled in other ways, including Ossape and Osape and Osope, as well as Osobe, among many more!

The deed was dated November 28, 1668. The signature of Captain Sunday was a turtle. It conveyed to Francis Small "my great tract of land at Osobe containing twenty miles square and lying between the two rivers of great Osobe, and Little Ossipee, so called, and being the same land where the said Francis Small's trading house now stands, and from the river Meehewonock near Humphrey Chadbourne's logging camp, and to extend Northerly and Easterly to Saco river." The consideration was "two large Indian blankets, Two gallons Rum, Two pounds powder, four pounds of Muscet Balls, and twenty string of Indian beads, with several other articles." This deed is still in existence, and was recorded in 1773.

Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine By George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs Published by Lewis historical publishing company, 1909 Item notes: v.1 Original from Harvard University