Small was born in 1625 to Edward Small and Elizabeth Shearte of
Bideford,
Devonshire,
England, one of six children. He is believed to have arrived in
New England with his father about 1632, the sole Small offspring to come to America. In 1648 he was residing in
Dover, New Hampshire, and married Elizabeth Leighton of Kittery about 1650. While living in Casco (now
Portland, Maine), in 1657, he bought from Scitterygusset, a local Native American
sagamore, about 200 acres (80.94 hectares) located on the northern side of Capisic Brook. In 1659, Small established a trading camp on
Sebascodegan Island, now part of
Harpswell, Maine. By 1668, he resided in Kittery, but operated a
trading post (as a
squatter) near the confluence of the
Ossipee River and
Saco River at what is now
Cornish, Maine. Here major Indian trails converged—the Sokokis Trail (now
Route 5), the Ossipee Trail (now
Route 25), and the Pequawket Trail (now
Route 113) – a location conducive towards lucrative
fur trade with Indians, but also with risks of living isolated in the wilderness.
Plot on his life Indeed, Chief Wesumbe (or Captain Sandy), the sagamore of the Newichewannock
Abenaki tribe, warned Small of a planned attempt on his life by renegade tribesmen. They owed him payment for goods purchased in the spring on credit, to be settled in the fall with furs. Instead, they decided to erase the debt by killing him at early dawn on a coming day, setting fire to his house and shooting him when he ran out the door. At first Small thought the warning a trick to frighten him away and avoid payment. Just to be on the safe side, however, he took refuge on a nearby hill, from which he could peer through the pines and observe what might transpire. As forewarned, at first light his trading post went up in flames. Small fled, by his account not stopping until he reached Kittery. all today in Maine (despite today’s
Ossipee being just west across the border in New Hampshire). Small thereupon sold a half interest in the Ossipee Tract to Major Nicholas Shapleigh, who lived at what is now
Eliot, Maine and was then the wealthiest man in the
Piscataqua River region. But Indian unrest flared in 1675–1676 with
King Philip's War.
English settlements up the coast were attacked and burned until the revolt was quashed. About 1684, Small operated a trading post on
Cape Small (which takes its name from him) at the extremity of what is today
Phippsburg. During
King William's War. However, English settlements in the region were destroyed again in 1689 by Abenaki warriors allied with the forces of
New France, which resented encroachment into territory it considered part of
Acadia. The area was deserted. Small took part in the Ossipee Excursion in this war. About 1700, Small moved from Kittery to
Truro, Massachusetts to live with his son, Daniel. Major Nicholas Shapleigh died in 1682, followed 32 years later by Small. Then, in 1770, the original unrecorded deed from Wesumbe to Francis Small was found by Small's heirs. Together with the heirs of Shapleigh, in 1772 they appointed a committee to recover the land. Accompanied by a surveyor and chairman, the committee marked what became the towns' boundaries. Represented by an attorney
James Sullivan, Small's heirs took possession of Cornish, Limington, Newfield, and half of Limerick, while Shapleigh's heirs took possession of Parsonsfield, Shapleigh, and the remainder of Limerick, the latter town presented by both sets of heirs to Sullivan as his fee. ==References==