Peaslee-Little

Jonathan Peaslee Little stands with his two grandchildren, Helen and Jewell Woodsom, at the family farm in Amesbury, MA.
ca. 1910’s

In northeastern Essex County, MA, a number of early families settled, and have stayed, over the course of nearly four hundred years. I happen to be an ancestor of several of these families; chiefly the Peaslees and the Littles. My third great grandfather is Jonathan Peaslee Little, a scion of several notable First Settling Families in this area. Amongst his ancestors are the Curriers, Batchelders, Jewells, Coffins, Follansbees, Moodys, Marches, Ayers and Knights — not to mention the Peaslees and Littles.

George Little (b. 1617 in England, m. Alice Poore, d. 15 March 1693 in Newbury, MA) was Jonathan Peaslee Little’s seventh great grandfather, and my 10th great grandfather. He and his family arrived in Newbury in 1640 from Unicorn Street in London. As it is recorded, he appeared to have been both a trustworthy, like-able and wealthy man — he held some of the finest pasture and woodlot in Newbury, and allegedly also kept lands in Connecticut, New Jersey and Vermont. He served as Executor for the estates of John Rolfe and William Cheney, and also appraised two local estates. In a letter to George dated “This 25 of the 8 month 1682,” his friend Thomas Osburne thanked him for a recent stay in Newbury, stating, “blessed be The Lord, hartily giving you thanks for your kind entertainment when I was last at your house.” The letter was conclusively marked, “This for his very loving frend Goodman Littell living att Newbury.”

Jonathan was also a descendant of Dr. Joseph Peaslee (my eighth great grandfather, Jonathan’s fifth great grandfather), a sort of split-personality settler of the East Parish (present day Rocks Village in Haverhill, MA); which made Jonathan a distant cousin of the famous poet John Greenleaf Whittier (Joseph’s daughter Mary was wed to Joseph Whittier). Dr. Peaslee happens to be a silly character in the world of this area’s early settlers. He was born in 1646 and married Ruth Barnard in 1671. Two years after their marriage, Joseph built a garrison house, which survives to this day on East Broadway in Haverhill, MA. He was often in and out of court, once for allegedly beating a local man named Peter Bruer and another time for punching a different man in the face and stomping on an apple, taunting the man that he could do to him what he was doing to the fruit. Despite his violent side, Peaslee eventually joined the nascent Quaker movement, becoming a dedicated Friend along with his wife.

Jonathan Peaslee Little’s ancestral legacy continued long after his death. His daughter, Annie Louisa Little, married George Woodsom of South Berwick, ME. Their son, Jewell Woodsom, owned and operated Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, one of the largest and most successful dairy farms in New England.

Sources:

George Thomas Little, The descendants of George Little, who came to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640. (Auburn, ME: published by the author, 1882).

“New England Witch Trials Lines,” RootsWeb WorldConnect Project. Last modified 7 August 2002, accessed 17 November 2014. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=witchtrials&id=I2056

Sunday Night Genealogy

I’ve been researching my family’s genealogy for the past five (or so) years. I initially sought to clear up some loose ends in the tale of my heritage; however, I ended up finding several very unravelled balls of yarn.
For as long as I can remember, I was always told to be proud my “strong New England roots,” a fairly common mixture of English, Scottish, Irish and French-Canadian. I am, of course, proud of my English-American heritage — I descend directly from Mayflower and Arbella passengers; Mary and John passengers (those who settled Newbury, MA in 1634); an accused “witch” during the Salem Trials; two early American Presidents and a few Sons of Liberty. All of these facets of my ancestral history have recently been met with a fascinating and unspoken part of my heritage — German-Jewish, Swiss-Jewish, and Flemish.
From what I’ve gathered so far, my paternal grandfather, an Adams, had a paternal grandmother who was entirely German (and, to some extent, quite Jewish, too). As I crept back along her family tree, surnames began to sound incredibly Yiddish — turns out they didn’t just sound it, they were!
Example: Schenkel: German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for someone with long or otherwise notable legs, from Middle High German schenkel, Middle Dutch schenkel, schinkel ‘thigh’, ‘lower leg’, German Schenkel ‘thigh’.
(Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press).
…now I know why my sister and a few cousins (on my father’s side) are really great runners. I also know why I’ve always loved yoykh, latkes, matzo balls and lox.
While this newfound ancestry certainly won’t influence me to drastically change anything about myself, it is certainly something I plan to embrace.

A few of my favorite (culinary) things

I love cooking. I really do. While I may not be a Michelin chef, I do think I’m a pretty good cook.

These are four of my most recently-used (and favorite) things to use in the kitchen. I buy them from Joppa Fine Foods in Newburyport, MA, and the truffle butter is from Whole Foods. The mustard greens are from my family’s farm