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Notes for THOMAS LITTLE:
!BIR: Mayflower GEDCOM of Lori Steadman 28 Nov 1994
MARR: `Mayflower Increasings' by Susan Roser p130: 9 children
MARR: `Mayflower Marriages' by Susan Roser p284 m3
MARR: `Saints and Strangers' by George F Willison 1945 p450: 8 childr en
BUR: Roser p130
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ancestry.com database [Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633 [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000. Original data: Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, vols. 1-3. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.] states:
THOMAS LITTLE
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1632
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
REMOVES: Marshfield before 1662
EDUCATION: Sufficient to fill the office of "Keeper of the Colony of New Plymouth books" [SJC
#1960].
OFFICES: Plymouth grand jury, 8 June 1664 [PCR 4:61]. Marshfield constable, 3 June 1662 [PCR
4:16].
In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:189].
ESTATE: Assessed 18s. in Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [PCR 1:11, 28].
On 4 March 1647 five acres of upland meadow in Plymouth "at a brook commonly called the
Indian Brook" were granted to Thomas Little "so long as ... himself or any of his posterity shall
remain within the limits of the township of Plymouth" [PTR 1:23-24, 38]. On 25 December 1655 the
town granted to Thomas Clark "five acres of meadow lying in the same meadow with Thomas Little,
Tho[mas] Little's being first laid out according to his grant in the town book" [PTR 1:207]. In 1664
Jonathan Morey expressed a desire "to have the meadow land granted to him that was sometimes
Thomas Little's being upon the Indian Brook beyond Mannomett Ponds" [PTR 1:76].
On 2 August 1652 "Thomas Little sometimes inhabitant of the town of Plymouth" (with the
consent of his wife Ann) sold to Richard Foster of Plymouth, planter, "all that his house and land
lying and being at the Eelriver in the township of Plymouth aforesaid whereon the said Thomas
Little formerly lived" [MD 1:98-99, citing PCLR 2:1:11].
On 3 June 1662, Thomas Little's rights to a farm he purchased in Marsh~field, formerly belonging
to Major William Holmes, were spelled out [PCR 4:16].
On 3 October 1665 Thomas Little, by virtue of land "he surrendered at Manomett Ponds," and
Josias Keane, by virtue of "his great neccesity," were allowed to look for land, and if they found it,
the court would grant them one hundred acres each [PCR 4:110]. Perhaps they failed to find
unclaimed land, for on 3 October 1665 Mrs. Rachel Davenport, as attorney to her husband Mr.
Humphrey Davenport and in her own right as heir of Major William Holmes, sued Little and Keane
for £600 for "detaining estate of lands and building on them" [PCR 7:126-27]. On 6 February
1665/6 Mrs. Rachel Davenport and her arbitrator referred the case against Thomas Little to the
determination of the court [PCR 4:113] and the court replied 1 May 1666 that Little should pay
Davenport £15 [PCR 4:119-20].
On 29 October 1668 the court registered the claim of "Experience Michell, Henery Sampson,
Richard Church and Thomas Little" to a parcel of land at Namassakett Pond, and declared that
"none shall interpose to deprive them of it until the court purchases it and settles it on them" [PCR
5:5].
In his will, dated 17 May 1671 and proved 1 July 1672, Thomas Little Sr. bequeathed to "my loving
wife all my housing and all my land, upland and meadow on that side of the brook I now dwell,
except only the meadow I purchased of Thomas Tildin and Morris Trewant"; to "my sons Isacke
and Ephraim the land on the other side of the brook"; "and all my land at Namassakett upland and
meadow to my two younger sons Thomas and Samuell, except only one single share of upland I
purchased of Jacob Mitchell which I bequeath to my grandchild John Jones except I do better
provide for him"; to "my son Ephraim one feather bed with all meet furniture ... to be disposed to
the said Ephraim at the time of his marriage"; to "Thomas and Samuel either of them a featherbed";
"my whole stock of cattle of all sorts ... equally divided amongst all my children"; residue to "my
wife"; "my two eldest sons Isacke and Ephraim shall disburse out of their own estates, either of them
£10 to help Thomas and Samuell in their buildings at Namassakett when they shall have occasion";
"and if I should sell my single share of land at Namassakett it is my will that my grandchild John
Jones shall have forty acres of land out of the land of Thomas and Samuell and at my wife's decease
Ephraim shall enjoy my housing, but the upland and meadow on that side to be equally divided
between Isacke and Ephraim"; "Sarah Bonney shall have convenient apparel and a cow at the time
of her departure out of her service" [MD 4:162-63, citing PCPR 3:1:46].
On 14 August 1672, administration of the estate of Thomas Little of Marshfield was granted to
Anna Little his widow [PCR 5:101].
The inventory of Thomas Little was taken at Marshfield 4 April 1672 and was untotalled, with no
real estate included [MD 4:163, citing PCPR 3:1:47].
On 1 March 1674/5 Isaac Little consented to the settlement of the estate of Nathaniel Thomas [PCR 5:158-59]).
COMMENTS: Thomas Little is included in a list of those attending town meeting in Plymouth about
1646 [PTR 1:22]. On 26 October 1647, Thomas Little of "the Yele [Eel] River" acknowledged a £20
debt to the court and king [PCR 2:120].
Thomas Little seems to have been absent from Plymouth, and from Plymouth Colony, from about
1652 to 1662. In his deed of 2 August 1652 he tells us he no longer resides in Plymouth, but does not
tell us where he does live. The Weymouth vital records call Patience Little the daughter of Thomas
Little of Cambridge at her marriage to Joseph Jones in 1657, but Thomas Little does not appear in
published Cambridge records.
On 7 February 1664/5 William Shurtliff sued Thomas Little for carrying off trees Shurtliff had
felled and squared. Major Alden and Joseph Beedle were to settle the bounds and Little to return the
trees, but final judgment to await the return of the bounds [PCR 4:79]. On 9 June 1665 Thomas
Little was fined £1 10s "for disclosing grand jury proceedings" [PCR 4:101, 8:114, 116].
On 7 March 1664/5 sometime constable William Holmes successfully sued Thomas Little for £5 in
damages for misleading Holmes into unjustly attaching the belongings of Nathaniel Winslow [PCR
7:122-23].
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