♀Deborah Littlefield

Deborah Littlefield (died by 1747) was the wife of Samuel Webber, a millwright of the Maine coast, and the executrix of his estate, who outlived him by more than twenty years at York. When she made her will in 1737, “being old and weak and infirm’d in Body”, she remembered a daughter, Barsheba, “who is now in Canada.” She was the seventh great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), probably through her son Waitstill Webber (1698–1775).

Marriage and family

No record of the marriage of Samuel Webber and Deborah Littlefield is known; she was probably a daughter of Captain John Littlefield of Wells. Her husband’s work moved the household along the frontier, from Wells to Casco Bay and Cape Neddick, and by 1695, during King William’s War^W, south to Gloucester, in Massachusetts. At Gloucester the couple lost two small children in 1698: a daughter, Deborah, aged three, and Patience, the twin sister of Waitstill, who died the month after the twins’ birth in January 1697/8. By 1700 the family was settled at York.

The couple had at least twelve children: nine named in Samuel’s will, two who died as infants at Gloucester, and a daughter, Barsheba, who is named only in her mother’s will.

Widowhood

Samuel’s will, made on 5 May 1716 and proved on 13 November 1716, named Deborah as executrix and left the homestead in time to Waitstill and Joseph. In April 1717, a few months into her widowhood, an attachment was issued at York in her suit against Elephalet Coffin of Exeter, New Hampshire, holding land against a debt. In 1726 she passed land and livestock to Joseph, her youngest son, under a mortgage.

Her will, dated 23 April 1737, left five shillings to each of her children, including Barsheba in Canada, and made her grandson Jonathan Sayward executor. It was proved on 19 May 1747.

The family

Their son Benjamin, a millwright like his father, later testified that he had gone to Damariscotta and built the first mill there for William Vaughan. A daughter, Barsheba, was living in Canada when her mother made her will in 1737. She was most likely the English girl written “Wabert”, a daughter of Samuel, who had been carried to Canada as a captive, was baptized there as Marie on 17 February 1714, and married Joseph Saleur on 11 March 1720.

Notes

Parentage

The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, by Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin Davis, lists “Deborah, m. Saml. Webber” among the children of Captain John Littlefield of Wells, who died on 9 February 1696/7, and his widow Patience; its account of Samuel Webber names his wife as Deborah, of that family. The same list has a sister, Patience, who married James Webber, Samuel’s brother. A 1991 family genealogy of the Blanchard and Merryman lines traced the Harpswell Webbers to James and Patience; the dictionary makes Benjamin and Waitstill sons of Samuel and Deborah instead.

Her will

The dates of the will, 23 April 1737 and 19 May 1747, are from the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Emma Lewis Coleman’s New England Captives Carried to Canada quotes the will, says it left five shillings to each of “her seven children”, and gives 23 April 1737 as the date it was proved. An index to her estate papers names John, Benjamin, Waitstill and Joseph Webber, Deborah Westcoat, Dorcas Baker and Mary Sayward as her children. Barsheba’s identification with the captive baptized as Marie is the dictionary’s “likely”.

The 1717 suit

The attachment of 15 April 1717, “Deborah Webber vs. Elephalet Coffin”, is a two-page signed document given to the New England Historic Genealogical Society and listed among its manuscript gifts in the Register for January 1990.

The line to Mercy Webber

Mercy Webber, who married Jacob Blake at Harpswell in 1755, is placed as a daughter of Waitstill Webber, but no record names her father. An index of York births lists a Mercy born on 4 February 1736 to Benjamin Webber, Waitstill’s brother. The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire makes both men sons of Samuel Webber and Deborah Littlefield, so under either reading Mercy was their granddaughter.