Revised 8/11/2017. Copyright @2017; The following Documentary Timeline has been compiled and created by Paul Rhetts. It may be copied for research purposes; but it may not be reproduced for inclusion in any printed or electronic distribution of any kind without the express written permission of the author. Any requests to use this information should be sent to Paul Rhetts, LPDPress@q.com.
Francis SMALL (1654-1709) m. Elizabeth HICKS (1659-1712)
s/o Francis W SMALL (1625-1713) and Elizabeth LEIGHTON (1622-1712)
d/o Samuel Edward HICKS (1611-1668) and Lydia DOANE (1630-1681)
p/o Samuel SMALL (1690-1737)
1648 Father Francis SMALL, Maine Pioneers, 1623-60: fisherman, Dover, taxed in 1648. Removed to Scarborough. Bought land of Sciterygusett of Casco Bay, Sagamore, 27 June, 1657. Took oath of allegiance to Mass. govt. at Spurwink 13 July, 1658. He deposed 16 June, 1677, ae. about 50 years, concerning what Trustrum Harris said when they were together "impressed to goe upon ye Countrys service to Ossaby." His wife Elizabeth, ae. about 49 years, deposed with him 10 May, 1683, as to his being employed about 23 or 24 years before to purchase a certain island from the Indians for Maj. Nicholas Shapleigh. He deposed 8 Sept. 1685, ae. 65, about servants of Mason's plantation being left by Francis Norton in 1640 and appropriating what possessions remained, goods and lands. Had lived in New England upwards of 50 years. Francis Small at age 20 moved permanently to the family summer home on Sebascodegan Island. He had his own small shallop by then and brought goods to trade with the Abenaki. He became fluent enough in the Algonquin language to exchange stories with his friends the abandoned people. They called themselves that because a generation earlier over 75% of their friends and relatives had died of an epidemic in 1617 that had swept through southern Maine, possibly cholera brought ashore by European fishermen [sometimes Father Francis SMALL listed as an attorney] Francis did not spend all his time on the island. He traveled inland with the natives in the fall and explored and mapped the territory west between the Atlantic and the foothills of the White Mountains and south beyond the Saco River.
In 1651 Francis wintered over in Casco Neck and made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Leighton of that town. Her parents, Thomas and Joanna, emigrated from Scotland about 1633 and settled in Casco Neck. Francis captured the heart of the seventeen year old Elizabeth and she moved with him to Sebascodegan in the spring of 1652. In February of 1653, again back in Casco Neck, Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, a boy named Edward. Later that year they traveled to Kittery and were married.
On returning to the island in 1654 Francis and Elizabeth found that the usual contingent of natives were absent. They were greeted by one man who told them that there were bands of Iroquois warriors coming down the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers and no one knew what was going to happen. He advised them to stay away until the trouble was resolved. Francis took his friend’s advice and he and Elizabeth returned to Kittery, stopping at Casco Neck to let the people there know what they heard.
The Iroquois nation was beginning its major expansion in those days. It would be another 40 years before they controlled much of the territory that would become the eastern United States and eastern Canada from Maryland to Ohio to Quebec. The Abenaki in Maine were aware of this warlike confederation of tribes and had good cause to be nervous.
After stopping at Kittery for a while, Francis and Elizabeth, with young Edward set sail for Cape Cod where Francis planned to establish another homestead for his brother Edmond so that Edmond might have success in the fishing business. They stopped at Provincetown where Elizabeth gave birth to their son David.
Francis spent 1655 clearing land and building a house with Edmond in the town of Truro just down the cape from Provincetown. There in 1656 Francis and Elizabeth had a daughter, Mary. In the spring of 1658 they returned to Sebascodegan.
There they found that the Abenaki had become permanent residents. The Iroquois incursion had not penetrated as deeply as they feared. In fact being forest natives the Iroquois generally avoided the coastal areas even in territory they controlled. So the peaceful Abenaki had moved to their seasonal habitation on the coast.
Francis and Elizabeth, with their growing family took up residence in their island homestead among the new neighbors. There in the summer of 1658 Elizabeth had the first white child born on Sebascodegan Island, Francis Small Jr.
One of the new neighbors was an Abenaki medicine woman of indeterminate age whose Algonquin name was Ole Lambo. She had the appearance of a tortoise, being misshapen by a hunched back and having a small head on a long neck that stuck out nearly horizontally before her. Her skill at healing was legendary among the Abenaki.
When Francis and Elizabeth’s daughter sickened with a fever she was attended by Ole Lambo and quickly recovered. Elizabeth later got the story of Ole Lambo from one of the younger Abenaki women.
The story was that in her youth Ole Lambo had been the most beautiful woman among the Abenaki people. She was so beautiful that young men avoided her, assuming she would not be interested in them. Fearing that she was destined to never marry she prayed to Manitou Kennebec, the guiding spirit of her people, to become a medicine woman.
Manitou Kennebec appeared to her in the form of a crow and told her that she was too beautiful to be a medicine woman. The people would not take her seriously. He could only grant he request if he made her appearance repulsive. Ole Lambo agreed and the crow laid its head on hers. The next morning she woke, bent and grotesque, with the knowledge of healing.
Manitou Kennebec returned to her in one year to see how things were going. Ole Lambo said she was doing pretty well but wanted more skill to match the large change in her appearance. Manitou Kennebec agreed the she should become the greatest medicine woman of the nation. He taught her how to breath water and to extract powerful medicine from the plants and animals beneath the sea.
For several years Francis and Elizabeth made the island their headquarters, sometimes sailing to Falmouth, formerly known as Casco Neck, to Kittery or to Truro on business or to visit family. During a stay in Kittery, a son Samuel was born in 1664. In 1665 Francis’s father and mother Edward and Elizabeth both died on the same day on opposite sides of the Atlantic and later that year during a stay in Truro Francis and Elizabeth had their son Benjamin.
In all the children were:
Edward Small 1652, Falmouth, ME
Daniel Small 1654 Provincetown MA
Mary Small 1656 Truro, MA
Francis Small 1658, Sebascodegan Island, Falmouth, ME
Samuel Small 1664, Kittery, ME
Benjamin Small 1665, Truro, MA
In 1666 Francis, together with his friend Richard Shapleigh, established a trading post on the upper Saco River, west of Sebago Lake. In the summer of 1668 he traded goods to the western Sokokis branch of the Abenaki people in exchange for their promise to bring furs in the fall. The Sokokis thought it would be more convenient to kill Francis than to pay their debt.
At that time there was a Abenaki sachem, Wesumbe, known to the English as Captain Sandy. He was fluent in English and traveled among the tribes and the English settlements working out compromises and generally promoting peaceful coexistence. He heard of the scheme to kill Francis and since he could not talk the western Sokokis out of their plan he visited Francis at the trading post in late September, 1668.
Captain Sandy’s activities and Francis’ often overlapped so the two men were acquainted, even friendly.
“Hello Captain,” said Francis. “What brings you this far up the Saco?”
“Strangely enough, you do,” Captain Sandy answered. “You have extended credit to people not credit worthy. I have learned of a plan to kill you the night of the full moon in October, that would be the 19th of the month, to avoid paying you the promised furs. They intend to set fire to this building near twilight and shoot you when you come out. I recommend taking precautions, perhaps not being in this vicinity at all in October might be best.”
“Captain I thank you for your concern. I will be on the lookout. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I could use a pouch of tobacco,”said Captain Sandy.
So Francis emptied his tobacco bin into a shoulder bag and sent Captain Sandy on his way with about thirty pounds of valuable shredded pipe tobacco.
The precaution that Francis took was to hide in the woods on the night of the full moon and watch his trading post building from a little rise south of the post. He was not convinced that the attack would happen. Shortly after sunset he saw the first wisps of smoke rising over his roof. He set out at a run directly south and ran, walked and stumbled the roughly fifty miles through rough country to Kittery in about nineteen hours.
He found Captain Sandy in Portsmouth the next day and told him of his adventure.
“I am ashamed for the behavior of my people,” said Captain Sandy.
“They ain’t your people Captain. You are as fair a man as I ever came across.”
“Yet you have lost your trading post. I will make amends.”
So after Francis pressed upon him sundry goods in some measure of recompense, Captain Sandy sat down and wrote out a deed, in favor of Francis, to the entire Ossipee tract, about 400 square miles of prime forest land, streams and ponds. It was a magnificent gesture but to claim and hold such a piece of land would require an army. Francis knew that but he deeded half of the tract to his partner in the trading post, Richard Shapleigh. The other half he left to his son Samuel in his will. None of the beneficiaries tried to enforce the deed.
In 1675 their Abenaki neighbors again warned Francis of impending trouble. It was the beginning of the six wars between the natives and the English that would cover all of New England and last for 85 years killing thousands of settlers and tens of thousands of natives.
Francis moved his family permanently to Truro where its location on Cape Cod made it both hard to get to and easy to defend. There Francis and Elizabeth’s children grew up, married and spread descendants out over Massachusetts. It would be 76 years before the family would permanently move back to Sebascodegan. In 1712 Elizabeth died in Truro as Francis did in 1714.
1654 Francis SMALL born at Falmouth, Cumberland, Maine [Descendants of Edward Small of New England: and the Allied Families with Tracings of English (Revised Edition). Underhill, Lora Altine Woodbury. (Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1934), pp125-6; Born in Maine, "probably in 1659 or 1660", wife Elizabeth, "probably" Hicks. Will dated 22 Aug 1709, proved 5 Apr 1710, "probably died in the winter of 1709-10". [Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A.M., Litt. D. Volume 1 Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York: 1909; Pg 86 (doc)] [usually listed as a carpenter]
In 1675 Francis Jr was 17 and had been pretty much forcibly removed from the company of a girl he found to be wonderful. His father had to move the family from Sebascodegan to Truro on Cape Cod to try to avoid the Indian Wars. The fact that the girl was of the Abenaki tribe had not been an issue all through their childhood together. All of Francis Sr. and Elizabeth’s children had played with the native children for as long as they could remember. Algonquin and English were co-first languages for them.
That Francis and Willow were to be on opposite sides in a conflict not of their making was not going down well with the young lovers. Francis Sr. sympathized with his son but the family must move for their own safety. For over a year Francis pined for his Abenaki maiden. There was no question of her joining him. The English would not stand for it. Already the sentiment that the only good Indian was a dead Indian had emerged among many English settlers. There was however a long tradition among the Abenaki of adopting young men of whatever background into their tribes. In the September of 1676, Francis won his parent’s permission to join the Abernaki.
It might seem a strange choice but the Smalls and the Abenaki of Sebascodegan had been friends and neighbors for two generations. Francis Sr. knew quite well that the Abenaki usually simply disappeared when threatened. He was confident that even if Francis could locate his former neighbors, they would withdraw to Canada rather than fight.
Francis returned to Sebascodegan in one of the family’s fleet of fishing boats. The place was deserted when he arrived. He traveled eastward along the coast through Penobscot Bay and the wild land to the east of that. As he went along he stopped to question both English and natives about the fate of the Sebascodegan clan. Finally somewhere east of Mount Desert he ran out of English and began to find French traders and fishermen, with whom he conversed in Algonquin. No one had any news of the people for whom he was hunting.
Francis eventually reached the St. Croix and pulled in at an encampment on the south side of the river where there was a Jesuit priest and his flock of native converts. There he heard rumors of some Abenaki from Casco Bay who had passed through in the spring and headed north into the Gaspe Peninsular. By now it was November; no time of year to try sailing around Arcadia to the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Francis thought he would tie up his boat to strike out overland but the people explained to him that it was a 300 mile trip to the St. Lawrence and he could no more walk it in winter than he could sail.
One of the Micmac men in the encampment, named Owl Eyes, wanted to go to the Gaspe anyway so he convinced Francis to wait until the weather broke in the spring. Then he would join Francis to either walk or sail as conditions warranted. So Francis stayed with the Micmac people until the middle of May in 1677.
Francis and Owl Eyes had to decide between a 300 mile walk and a 900 mile sail. The walk might take less time, perhaps less than a month, but the sail was a lot more convenient. Supplies could be carried and the boat provided shelter. Also they could fish along the way. Owl Eyes had no experience with boats but he knew enough about long walks to readily agree to the sea voyage.
They launched their boat, loaded it with everything they thought might come in handy and sailed away. Religion had never been at the center of Francis’s life but spending the winter with the Jesuit trying to convert him to Catholicism put him off it altogether. He was never so glad to be leaving a place.
Working from an English chart, with nothing but a compass and a speed log for navigation, Francis sailed across the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, along the Arcadia coast, through the Cabot Strait and across the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the mouth of the great river. It took 37 days.
There on the shore of the Gaspe Peninsular he did find an Abenaki encampment including people recently arrived from the south but they were not the clan he was seeking. He learned that the Sebascodegan clan had not come east, as most of the Abenaki fleeing New England did to avoid the possible contact with the Iroquois, but northwest by the shortest route heading for an encampment just west of Quebec City on the south side of the river.
Owl Eyes said he had nothing more important to do so he would accompany Francis upriver to Quebec City. In fact he was caught up in Francis’s quest and stayed with him as they found the tributary feeding the St Lawrence from the south, a bit west of Quebec City. There was the encampment of a hundred displaced Abenakis at a place the French called St. Romauld. Here Francis learned that Willow’s family had fallen behind due to an injury to her father and had probably wintered near Lac Megantic, just across the border from Maine into Canada. They would likely be along later.
“Likely be along later”, was not good enough for Francis. He was all for following the trail back from St. Romauld to Lac Megantic to search for Willow. Owl Eyes again said he had nothing better to do and more importantly he had followed that trail before. Francis gave his boat to the Abenaki with the understanding that he would pay something for it if he made it back and he and Owl Eyes started almost due south for the Lac.
The journey was about a hundred miles as the crow flies. They arrived at the Lac Megantic encampment in mid-summer, 1677. There they found people whom Francis knew from Sebascodegan. From them he learned that Willow’s father had died of an infected wound. Willow’s mother placed herself and the children under the protection of a distant relative from the western Abenaki or Sokoki tribe.
Willow’s new stepfather was a warrior who was headed to a place near Springfield, MA to fight the English. He was taking his new family to a safe place in the hills east of the Connecticut River where he would leave them with others of his clan.
Francis wanted to follow but Owl Eyes pointed out the he was English and apt to have trouble among the Sokoki, even if he could avoid the Iroquois. Francis’s solution was to become a Frenchman. He had gained one important skill in his stay with the Jesuit; he could speak French.
Owl Eyes said he had nothing more important to do so they set out together along the trail to the Connecticut River valley, Francis as a Frenchman and Owl Eyes as an Abenaki. The twisting path followed the high ground that marks the border between Canada and Maine, and Canada and New Hampshire. This tortuous route avoided the swampy terrain that lay in the lower land on both sides of the border. At the headwaters of the Connecticut River the trail left the high ground and followed the river valley southwest.
Just south of the Massachusetts border, in the hills to the east of the Connecticut was the village where Willow and her family had gone. It was about a 300 mile walk and took them until fall of 1677. Owl Eyes convinced Francis to be circumspect in his greeting the family, who knew him to be English. They arrived and sought out the leader of the village and asked if they might remain and refresh themselves before continuing south.
The village leader agreed and introduced them around as a Frenchman and his companion, a maritime Abenaki. Willow had last seen Francis in the spring of 1775 at age 17. Now he was nearly 20 and quite thin. She gave no sign of recognizing him. He did recognize her and noticed that she was no longer among the children but among the married women of the village. Owl Eyes made some discrete enquires and found that she had taken a warrior husband less than a month earlier.
Owl Eyes counseled Francis that the kindest thing for Willow’s sake would be to never let her know he had followed her and Francis agreed. They remained in the village only as long as etiquette required.
On their departure they presented the village leader a gift of a Shawnee tobacco pipe that Owl Eyes had traded for previously. He summoned one of the women to bring a hatchet to the travelers. Willow walked up and looking Francis in the eyes made a speech presenting the gift to him. She included in closing that as a child she knew a “French” boy at Sebascodegan.
Owl Eyes said that since he had nothing more important to do, he would accompany Francis down the Connecticut to the sea. They rafted down through Massachusetts to the confluence of the Chicopee where they ran afoul of a war party and had to join them in attacking a settlement village on the river. An Englishman was taken prisoner and in the night, Francis helped him escape before he and Owl Eyes themselves slipped away.
Before winter set in, Francis and Owl Eyes made it to Lyme where Francis booked passage for himself and Owl Eyes to Portsmouth, RI with a coastal trader. The idea was to walk from Portsmouth to Truro so Francis would at last be home.
As it turned out, they were delayed at Portsmouth. The folks of Rhode Island were famous for their tolerance but it did not extend to Owl Eyes. He was not a “tame” Indian, one in the employ of a white settler, but a “wild” one, traveling with an Englishman hardly civilized himself.
Francis knew of the Hicks family in Portsmouth from his father’s business dealings with Samuel Hicks so he went to Samuel to try to get him to vouch for Owl Eyes. Samuel knew and respected Francis Sr. so he agreed to take Francis and owl Eyes into his household for as long as they would stay in Portsmouth. In fact, Samuel offered them employment for the winter in his shipyard. Francis was about out of money and agreed, sending word on to Truro that he was alive and well and would be home in the coming summer.
In the spring, Owl Eyes said he would like to go back to Canada. Francis said he didn’t have anything more important to do. He convinced Samuel Hicks to let him take a boat with the promise that either he or his father would pay for it. Samuel and Owl Eyes sailed from Rhode Island to Truro where Owl Eyes was introduced to the family and the story of his and Francis’s adventure was told. Then they sailed to Quebec where Francis recovered his father’s boat.
Francis gave that boat to Owl Eyes, who had learned to sail and navigate in his time with Francis. Owl Eyes said he would become a coastal trader with his new vessel. They said good-bye and Francis sailed back to Truro, arriving on the first of November in 1678.
After a stay at home in the winter of 1678-1679, Francis returned to Portsmouth, RI to work for Samuel Hicks again. He settled into a routine of working in the Hicks shipyard fall and winter and fishing out of Truro with his uncle Edmond spring and summer.
In the fall of 1680 it occurred to Elizabeth Hicks that there was nothing more attractive than a handsome, well mannered young man with a mysterious past who was gone about half the time. Elizabeth was the 21 year old daughter of Samuel Hicks. Francis had never shared with the Hicks family the reason for his odyssey through the frontier. It led to considerable speculation that he and Owl Eyes were spies.
Elizabeth fell hopelessly in love with Francis. She sought out his company and sent out signals and Francis was always friendly to her but seemed to lack romantic interest. She persisted and finally in 1683 was driven to a unilateral statement of her love for Francis and asked if there were any hope for her.
Francis told her about his childhood among the Sebascodegan Indians and love affair with Willow. Elizabeth said she did not expect to be Francis’s first love, just his last. They were engaged, to the delight of the Hicks’s and the Smalls, and in 1685 were married.
Initially they settled in Kittery among Francis’s southern Maine relatives. Like his father Francis traded and fished, living in both Kittery and Truro as business dictated. Francis and Elizabeth had five children:
Francis Small 1686, Kittery, ME
Samuel Small 1690, Truro, Barnstable, MA
Daniel Small 1691, Kittery, ME
Joseph Small 1696, Truro, Barnstable, MA
Sarah Small 1700, Kittery, ME
In 1710 Francis died of pneumonia. Elizabeth died in 1712 of a wasting sickness. [Brief Beginnings Of Cornish, Maine by John Small: When white men first visited this area, it was found to be occupied by the Sokokis, a tribe of Indians whose chief dwelt on Indian, now Factory Island, Saco. Their chief stronghold was upon the south side of the Ossipee, in what is now Cornish. By 1666 Francis Small of Kittery had established a trading camp in what is now Cornish Village. Just where it was located is not certain. In the summer of 1668,Francis Small sold goods to the Newichewannock tribe of Indians on credit, for which they were to pay in furs during the autumn. When the time for 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 Sandy, the chief of the tribe, was friendly to Small and told him what the Indians were to do; and, as he could not control them in the matter, he advised Small to flee for his life. Small thought the tale cunningly devised fable to frighten him away in order to avoid payment; but, when night came on, thinking it was wise to be on the side of safety, he secreted himself in some pines on a hill nearby and watched through the long November night. With the coming of dawn, a flame of fire shoot up from the burning house, whereupon Small took to his heels with all possible speed, and did not pause until he reached Kittery. The chief called by the English Captain Sandy, followed Small and made good the loss caused by debt and by fire, conveying to him the entire Ossipee tract.
Probably no deed in the entire territory included in the present state of Maine has been the cause of so many heart burnings and lawsuits as this conveyance from the Indians to Francis Small. The original deed, now over three hundred years old, has been examined by two of the best experts in Boston and been pronounced a genuine, ancient deed; yet its validity has been questioned again and again. Its particular value lies in the fact that five towns in the northwestern part of York County hold title under it "Cornish, Limington, Limerick, Parsonfield and Newfield. "Ossipee" is an Indian word meaning "River of Pines". This area was an unbroken wilderness for the next hundred years. It was covered with dense growth of forest in which might be found every tree common to this latitude. In 1772 it was first surveyed and named Francisborough in honor of Francis Small.
Now Francis Small, from whom most of the Smalls is this area are descended, was only a boy of twelve when he came with his father, Edward, from Bideford, England about 1632. Edward Small came under the auspices of his kinsman Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and founded Piscataqua, which has since been divided into Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, and Berwick. He was a cavalier of high social position and a kinsman of the Champernowns, the most powerful family in Devonshire and the descendants of the Byzantine kings. He was also a relative of Sir John and Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Rawleigh. One of the Champernown girls married a Gilbert and became the mother of Sir John and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. After her husbands’ death, she married a Rawleigh and became the mother of Sir Walter Rawleigh.
In 1648 Francis Small was in Dover, N.H., but by 1657 he was in Falmouth, Maine. In 1659 he established a trading camp on Sebascodegan, now Great Island in the district of Harpswell, an island well known for it’s sturgeon fishery. The twenty mile square tract which he received from Capt. Sandy he divided, selling half to Major Nicholas Shapeigh and giving the other half to his son, Deacon Samuel Small. Sullivan, in his History of Maine refers to Francis Small as the "great landowner".
In 1668, Francis Small traded goods with the Newichewannock tribe of this area. Their Chief Wesumbe, also known as Captain Sandy, was friendly with Small and warned him of a plot against his life. A group of renegade tribesmen planned on murdering Small instead of paying him with the furs that were owed to him. Small escaped after watching his house in what is now Cornish burn to the ground. The Chief made up the loss by selling Small all the lands bounded by the Great and Little Ossipee Rivers, the Saco River, and the New Hampshire border. Known now as the five Ossipee towns, the tract included all of Limington, Limerick, Cornish (formerly named Francisborough), Newfield, and Parsonsfield. These are the five towns that the Francis Small Heritage Trust concentrates its efforts in.
In honor of Chief Wesumbe, the Francis Small Heritage Trust has adopted his mark, the Sign of the Turtle, as our logo. Captain Sandy's mark is from the collections of the Maine Historical Society and is used with their permission.] [Gen. Dictionary of Maine & New Hampshire by Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, Walter Goodwin David, The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine, Pgs 639 & 640: Francis Small planter, fisherman, noted Ind. trader, first seen in a Dover tax list of Dec. 1648, but by his depos. 1685 (Prov. Papers 29:136) he knew Capt. Mason"s plantation and servants upward of 50 yrs amd + or - 40 yrs. bef. was employed by Capt. Norton to drive cattle toward Boston. Aged + or - 43 in Mar. 1670; + or - 56 and w. Elizabeth+ or - 49 in May 1683; + or - 57 in Nov. 1685,of Casco Bay in July1657 he had an Ind. deed of Capisic, sold half to John Phillips (9) in1658 and re-affirmed his deed aft. Cleeve and unsucc. sued him for building and settling on his land on Sebascodegan or Small's Island early, which he but for Major Shapleigh long an intimate friend to whom in 1669 he made over half his Ossipee interest. He dealt early in furs and with the Ind. and had land and housing Ossipee bef. Feb. 1662when made over all to Munjoy and agreed to make an accounting every time he came back. For the litigation years later and the Ossipee proprs., see "Descendants of Edward Small" (1934 c.d.) In 1767, he laid claim to the land his fa. had sold to Antipas Maverick whose heirs succ. sued him in 1683. His last yrs. were spent on Cape Cod where he and his wife, Elizabeth were liv. with son, Daniel in 1712and where he soon died. Daniel, a carpenter, had supported his parents6 or 7 yrs in 1712 and would have to do so as long as they lived. A purported deed from his fa. 31 Oct. 1712, conveying all he owned or thought he owned has generally been consid. fraudulent, but Daniel mortg. and sold prop. under it; liv. Provincetown 1729. Wife unkn. 5of his ch. came to Cape Elizabeth; Anna Dyer (w. of Henry), +or-86 in Aug 1781;see N.E. Reg. 35;366; Isaac, John, Edward and Abigail Strout (w. of Anthony). Two sons Daniel and Elisha liv. in Mass. and Conn. and Benjamin is untraced aft. 1730. Alice m. 1st Wormwood and 2d 19Apr 1711 Beriah Smith, Elizabeth m. John Pugsley. Note: With his brothers, Edward and Samuel , Francis plied his trade at the mast-yard in Dover, styling himself carpenter. In Captain John Gerrish's account of ye Masting Aug 09, 1686 , ...Franc: Small is credited with work up on the Madbury bridge, and his name also appears upon several other time-tables. The "1 payr french sols: which were charged to him were doubtless a luxury but little indulged in at that period.
Francis first lived with father at Kittery. By 1643 they had moved upriver where his father acquired a homestead of 100 acres, living there until his father sold the homestead in 1647. He paid taxes in Dover, New Hampshire (then part of Maine) in 1648. In July 1657 he acquired a tract of upland and marshes running back from Casco Bay in what is now known as the town of Falmouth. For this land he bound himself to pay yearly to the Indian chief during the chief's life, plus one trading coat and one gallon of liquer.
Francis referred to himself as a planter, but was preeminently a fisherman, trapper and Indian trader. He learned the Indian language and was employed by Major Shapleigh and others to negotiate with the Indians. He lived a roving life and established homes in different areas.
With his occupation gone, tired of fighting Indians, and troubled with conflicting claims in his land speculations, he left Maine for Easthamon Cape Cod in Mass. Here he probably engaged in fishing for a time, as in 1712 he still called himself a fisherman. In 1713, in a conversation with Squire Pain, the leading lawyer of Truro, he said that his son Edward was dead, his son Francis was dead, his son Samuel was living at his home place in Maine, his son Benjamin had moved to Connecticut, and his son Daniel had maintained him and his wife Elizabeth in Truro for seven years, and must maintain them as long as they lived. For this care, he left the bulk of his estate to Daniel.
1659 Francis SMALL’s parents moved from Falmouth to Sebascadegan the largest island in Casco Bay where his father had previously established a trading post. He was the first child born of English parents on Great Sebascadegan. Due to the Smalles early residence there, the island was commonly referred to as Smalle's Island. This area is now a summer resort for the city dwellers who live down the New England coast. After a year's residence on the island the family returned to Falmouth.
1659 Elizabeth HICKS born at Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island [it is said that she was mentioned in Grandmother's will dated 8 July 1655 as reported in "Doane" book Vol I pg 20 compiled and published by A. A. Doane Boston Mass 1902 from Plymouth Colony and Eastham Mass records; Dorothea Griebel Enc #379; Al Meyers, Enc #433. BUT THAT WOULD BE 4 YEARS BEFORE SHE WAS BORN!]
1660 SMALL family returned from Sebascadegan back to Falmouth
1668 Francis SMALL purchased the Ossipee tract near Limington, ME (near Falmouth; Cash Corner and Long Creek)
1679 Francis SMALL and Elizabeth HICKS married at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts [Francis and his brothers Edward and Samuel plied their trade at the mast-yard in Dover, with Francis styling himself a carpenter. He is credited with work on the Maybury Bridge. For a number of years his place of residence is uncertain, it may have been at Portsmouth] [U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 for Francis Smale, p.679: states dates for Father Francis SMALL and Elizabeth, ca. 1650 at Kittery, ME; and Francis SMALL (son) married to Elizabeth HICKS, but no date (doc)]
1686 son Francis SMALL born at Kittery, York, Maine; died Jul 1730 at Kittery, York, Maine; married Priscilla YOUNG on 24 Apr 1718 at Eastham, Barnstable, MA [Admitted as member of the Church of Truro 30 Aug 1713. Granted land at Truro in 1715, and served as Selectman of the town in 1720]
1688 dau Mary SMALL born at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts; died at Harpswell, Cumberland, Maine; married ___ STROUT
1690 son Samuel SMALL born at Kittery, York, Maine; died 11 Nov 1737 at Kittery, York, Maine; married Isabel DYER 1713 at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts [The Proprietors of Truro recorded 26 Apr 1715 that land was sold to Samuel Smalley, Francis Smalley, William Dryer and Jonathan Dyer, and a further division of land to these proprietors was ordered. In a list of proprietors living in Truro 16 Feb 1730 appears the name Francis Smalley and Isabel Smally, then widow of Samuel Smalley. It is probable that Samuel Smalley was a "Whale-fisherman", then the most daring and lucrative occupation of that area, and that he was lost at sea. The inventory of Samuel Smalley, late of Truro, deceased, was taken 20 Aug 1729. On 10 Jul 1730, Isabel Smalley petitioned the court for assistance due to her low circumstances and having 7 small children to care for. On27 Jan 1730/31 she became the third wife of Joseph Hatch, then of Provincetown. "Samuel (Smaley) owned the covenant in the church at Truro, February 19, 1726-7"] [SAR Ap 26084 lists Samuel, father Francis and mother Elizabeth (doc)
Samuel Small underwent two life changing events at the age of 15 in 1706. That fall he caught his first whale and was apprenticed his mother’s father, a shipbuilder in Portsmouth, RI.
The fact that the whale was deceased at the time Samuel found it did not detract from his excitement. Whaling in those days consisted of salvage of dead whales that washed up on shore and so called “drift whaling”, which consisted of launching small boats through the surf whenever whales were spotted near the shore and harpooning one. Attached to the harpoon was a long rope with a wooden float on the end of it. When a whale was exhausted from towing the wooden float through the water it could be easily killed with a long lance and towed ashore.
Once beached, the whale would be stripped of its blubber and baleen and the remains left on the beach to be carried off by the tide. The baleen was a material similar to human fingernails, which grew in the whales mouth forming a filter through which water could be expelled so that the bits of food in the seawater remained in the whale’s mouth. It was put to use in a some tools as well as ladies’ undergarments. The blubber was cooked in large pots called try pots to extract the whale oil from it. The pots together with the fireplaces over which they were heated were called the try-works.
Samuel had been raised on the waters off Cape Cod and loved boats. He had experimented with skiff designs as a child and had recently built a model with high curved sides and a narrow flat bottom. When he stood on a rail the boat would lie down until the rail was almost in the water but the resistance to tipping increased dramatically the more it tipped and it was just about unsinkable.
With the rail close to the water, fish could be conveniently pulled on board and when the boat righted itself the high sides made it ride large waves without shipping water. The sides were high enough that Samuel could stand up to row.
He was halibut fishing one day in Cape Cod Bay from his new boat when he saw something big floating low in the water in the distance. He rowed over to it and found that it was a right whale that had either suffered an accident or died of old age. The creature was nearly three times the length of Samuel’s twenty-foot boat.
Samuel knew that this was an extremely valuable find. He attached several of his large halibut hooks to the great head and running a line to the stern of his boat he began to row. He was several miles offshore and making slow going of it, towing the sixty ton carcass toward the beach at Corn Hill Landing where drift whales were butchered. From there the blubber would be hauled by wagon up Corn Hill to the try works, which were set on high ground to minimize the effect of the smoke and to be close to a plentiful supply of firewood.
Darkness fell and still Samuel rowed. The tidal current was not strong but it had significant effect on the whale carcass because it rode so low in the water. When Samuel came close to shore by moonlight he realized that he was over a mile from the landing. Laboriously he reversed his direction and rowed to keep the whale away from the shore until the tide turned in a favorable direction. Then he pulled hard for the shore, letting the tide bring him exactly where he wanted to be. He anchored the whale to the shore and ran home so that at dawn he was rousing his family to come and see what he had caught.
They were worried about Samuel’s overnight absence and planning to look for him at first light. Instead they were admiring the right whale carcass when the sun came up. Samuel’s father Francis knew what to do. He went to the Dr. William Dyer and got him out of bed to bear witness to Samuel’s single handed capture of the whale. The physician was delighted to be part of the excitement. All of Truro turned out to cut up the whale and try the blubber into oil. Samuel received the principle share of the profit.
Samuel’s skill as a boat designer and builder had of course come to the attention of his grandfather Samuel Hicks, for whom he was named. Samuel Hicks still operated a shipyard in Portsmouth, RI. He suggested and Francis agreed that young Samuel would be an apprentice at the yard for a year to see how it went.
Samuel in fact worked three years in Portsmouth expanding his knowledge of ship design and construction. He proposed a design for a sloop at the end of his second year and with few modifications his boss ordered it built. It was forty-seven feet long and ten feet in beam, with a deep keel weighted with lead. There was a single mast with a large gaff rigged main sail and a jib. A small crow’s nest was hung on the mast above the gaff.
Samuel had a natural instinct for the factors that affected drag on a vessel and his sloop was by far the fastest boat around. As soon as the sea trials were over Samuel convinced Samuel Hicks to let him take the sloop to sea to hunt for whales where they lived rather than wait till they were near shore.
The sloop needed at least three men to handle it comfortably. For a long voyage Samuel thought four would be better. He headed home and signed up his brother Daniel as one crew member. There was a retired sailing master named Roger Upham living in Truro who was a good friend of Samuel’s father Francis. Francis convinced him to come out of retirement to sail with Samuel to improve Samuel’s formal deep water sailing education. The fourth crew member was Pierson Young, a man of twenty-five, who had experience as a harpooner drift whaling.
On August 15, 1709 Samuel and his crew sailed north-northeast from Truro under fair skies. They sailed from dawn to dusk and drifted at night. The object was to locate the whales rather than cover a lot of ground so they didn’t want to sail by a pod them in the dark. At the end of the fifth day they lay just southwest of the Bay of Fundy.
Daniel had the mid-watch, from midnight to four o’clock in the morning. About one o’clock he lowered himself from the crow’s nest and went below to shake Samuel by the shoulder.
“Sam, wake up,” he whispered. “Come up on deck! There is ghosts rising out of the sea all around. Lord help us it must be the spirits of drowned seamen.”
Samuel scrambled to the deck and looked all around. In every direction luminous jets were rising from glowing swirls on the sea.
“Roger Pierson,” he called. “Get up here as quick as God will let you.”
Roger popped out of the hatch and took a quick turn looking a the display of weird lights.
“Boys them is whales. We are right in amongst them. That is fire in the water you are seeing. Sometimes when you stir the sea it makes that blue-green light. Listen, you can hear em blowing.”
Sure enough some of the nearer lights rose in conjunction with a definite whoosh.
When daylight came Samuel’s vessel was still in the midst of large group of whales. They weren’t moving as a mass in any obvious direction, just sort of milling about as they fed. Daniel and Pierson launched one of the small boats that would come to be known as a dory and harpooned a medium sized whale. Away went the whale with the harpoon, the line and a wooden raft with a flag attached to it.
The dory men returned to the sloop and Samuel got underway to follow the flag. Before long the whale became exhausted lolled about on the surface. Again the dory was launched and the whale was killed by the sharp lance that Pierson plunged into its body.
Two additional lines were attached to the whale for security and Samuel carefully maneuvered the sloop alongside to take the lines and attach them at the stern of the sloop. The dory was hoisted aboard and Samuel set out for home. It took some practice to drag a sixty ton whale behind a twenty ton sailboat which had to tack back and forth into the prevailing southwest wind. Roger told him to not take the most direct route back but to swing in to twenty miles or so off the Maine shore where the current would be more favorable. On the 2nd of September, Samuel’s crew beached the whale at Truro.
For the next year Samuel was dragging a whale carcass back to Truro about as often as he wanted to. He had learned navigation, seamanship and the habits of the great whales. But the whales did not agree. In May of 1710 the migration back to the bay of Fundy failed to happen. After a nearly solid year of catching whales, Samuel sold his whaling operation and went back to the shipyard.
The business of dragging whales, one at a time, to the home port was greatly slowing down the production that Samuel thought might be possible. At the shipyard he designed a two-masted schooner fitted out with barrels in which just the blubber could be brought back to port. The baleen could be stacked on deck.
In less than a year Samuel was underway in his new ship. He returned to Truro with the baleen and blubber from half a dozen whales and the try-works took weeks to recover the oil. There was a problem with the oil quality. It did not try out as well from blubber that was not fresh. The problem could be minimized by whaling in cold weather so the deterioration of the blubber was slowed.
It was late in 1712 when Samuel decided to make another try at a proper whaling vessel. He went back to the shipyard with a design for their largest vessel yet. A three-masted square rigger vessel called a brig was built. Amidships were two wood fired furnaces made of refractory brick, on which huge try pots could be fired. It was a complicated ship to build and it was the fall of 1714 before Samuel could make his first trip to the North Atlantic whaling grounds.
In the time between 1711 and 1714 Samuel slowed down enough in his pursuit of whale oil wealth to fall in love. Samuel at 21 was the most eligible bachelor in Truro; ambitious, intelligent and quite well-to-do. Beyond that he was good natured and good looking. All the young women from Provincetown to Portsmouth knew of Captain Small and wondered what were their chances. Samuel however did not look far from home.
Dr. Dyer had a daughter Isabel. She was 17 in the summer of 1712 and Samuel had known her all her life. She had been a happy child and was confident young woman. Samuel made the first move by asking Dr. Dyer for his blessing on their courtship. Then he asked Isabel to join him on a picnic with his mother and young sister. Things went on from there and Samuel and Isabel were married in 1713.
Samuel spent 1714 through 1716 whaling the North Atlantic, rarely more than 800 miles from home. His new ship was a huge success. He could bring his finished whale oil to whatever port offered the best price. In 1716 copies of his design began to show up on the whaling grounds but none approached his ship in the combination of speed and carrying power.
In 1718-1719 Samuel did not show up on the whaling grounds and no one seemed to know where he had gone. In November of 1719 he returned from a voyage to the South Atlantic where he had filled and refilled his ship with whale products, selling them in Spain at enormous profit. Again in 1721-1723 he made the South Atlantic run.
In 1724-1726 he took the still larger ship he had ordered and went all the way to Tierra del Fuego gathering whale products. On this trip he expanded his catch to include sperm whales. They yielded not only the finest oil but spermaceti that went into the best quality candles and ambergris which was a base for perfume. Ambergris was literally worth more than its weight in gold.
By April of 1729 Samuel and Isabel had seven children:
Samuel Small, 9/15/1714, Truro, MA
Taylor Small 9/15/1716, Truro, MA
Francis Small, 8/2/1719, Truro, MA
Mary Small 10/1721, Truro, MA
Isabel Small 4/1724, Truro, MA
Lydia Small 5/1727, Truro, MA
Hix Small 4/11/1729, Truro, MA
In June of 1729 Samuel again left for an extended voyage with two new, larger ships. One commanded by him and the other by his friend William Eames. In August both ships were caught at sea in the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico that year. They went down with all hands. Isabel was left the saddest and poorest widow in Massachusetts. All the family wealth was tied up in the two new ships.
1693 son Daniel James SMALL born at Kittery, York, Maine; died 1729 at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts; married Sarah Day SNOW 13 Jan 1715 at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts [SAR Ap 24526 lists Daniel, father Francis and mother Elizabeth (doc)
1696 son Joseph SMALL born at Kittery, York, Maine; died 3 Jan 1773 at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts; married Mercy YOUNG [Grave stone:
Here lies buried
the Body of
Mr JOSEPH SMALLEY
died Jan'ry 11th 1773
in ye 77th Year
of his Age
1698 dau Alice SMALL born at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts [Moved to Truro, MA with her parents. Admitted as member of the Truro Church 18 Nov 1716]
1700 dau Sarah SMALL born at Kittery, York, Maine; died 1702
16 Feb 1702 Francis SMALL was at Truro, Barnstable, MA when the proprietors voted to admit him the privileges of Truro provided he buy land and settle there on
1705 dau Ann SMALL born at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts; died at Boston, Suffolk, MA
22 Aug 1709 Francis SMALL died at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts
1712 Elizabeth HICKS died at Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts