The Descendants of George Little, Who Came to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1640

Auburn, Maine: The Author, 1882. First edition. Hardcover. Good. 8vo, 6 x 9.5, xvi + 620 pages, with tweny-six tipped-in plates. Binding is tight, except front hinge is loose and a few of the tipped-in plates are detached (but present and in place). There is some water staining on the back cover and at the top of approx. six pages, else the interior is clean with nominal toning.

This genealogy, with many interleaved illustrations, offers a history of the Little family from George of Newbury, the immigrant ancestor, through nine generations of his descendants, in both male and female lines. Almost all the first three generations lived and died in Newbury, Massachusetts. Through the end of the eighteenth century (i.e., ca. 1800), we rarely find the family beyond the bounds of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Within the next eighty years, the family could be found in nearly every state and territory of the Union. Of the 6500 descendants mentioned in the compilation, nearly 3000 claimed Massachusetts and New Hampshire as their residence (about 1,500 each); 750, Maine; 500, Vermont; 400, New York; and 250, Canada. Another thousand resided in "western states." The family's leading occupation was agriculture. Of fourteen hundred heads of family whose occupations were known to the compiler, more than a third were farmers. About three hundred, were engaged in business, mechanical, or professional pursuits. One in twenty served in each of the three "learned professions": theology, medicine, and law. Five of the family served as college presidents. Apart from LITTLE and its variants, family names that appear most frequently in this publication are: ADAMS, ATKINSON, BAILEY, BROWN, CHASE, CLEMENT, COFFIN, EATON, EMERY, GERRISH, GILMAN, HALE, HOWE, KIMBALL, KNIGHT, MERRILL, MOODY, MOORE, MORSE, NOYES, POOR(E), READ, SAWYER, SHURTLEFF, SMITH, STEVENS, TENNEY, THURLOW, TOPPAN, and WEBSTER.