The Nashes: The Story of an Indigent Family in South Kingstown, Rhode Island

by Gay Auerbach

Reprinted from Rhode Island Roots, Journal of the Rhode island Genealogical Society, Vol. 51:1 (March 2025)

The meager 1749 estate inventory of Littlefield Nash’s father, Ebenezer Nash

Plainfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, credits Littlefield Nash with being one of the first European people to spend a winter in the newly established town. He and his superior officer Josiah Russell canoed up the Connecticut River in 1764 as representatives of the proprietors of Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut, having gained knowledge of the area while scouting during the French and Indian War.(1) Nash started clearing land for settlement and was granted one hundred acres.(2) Illiterate and probably rough- hewn, he blazed a trail to Charlestown, New Hampshire, hunted bear and received the ministrations of local Abenaki during a dire illness that first winter, at least according to legend.(3)

Littlefield Nash’s unusual first name indicates that the likely candidates to be his forebears are Dorothy Littlefield and Isaac Nash, who married in Braintree, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 6 December 1694.(4) Many records of the Nashes point to poverty, but the crucial link between Littlefield Nash, his father Ebenezer Nash, and his grandparents Isaac and Dorothy (Littlefield) Nash comes in the form of a small legacy from Littlefield’s maternal grandfather, Thomas Grinnell.

Isaac Nash and Dorothy Littlefield

The Nash/Littlefield couple were early transplants into Rhode Island. Dorothy Littlefield was born around 1674 in Wells, Maine, to Thomas Littlefield and his first wife Ruth, or perhaps to Sarah, his second wife.(5) Dorothy left Wells for Braintree shortly after her father Thomas drowned in the icy waters near Berwick, York County, Maine around 1689/90.(6) By accident or design, she married another Wells native living in Braintree, Isaac Nash.

Sometime after her 1694 marriage, Dorothy and Isaac Nash moved to Kingstown, Kings County, Rhode Island, perhaps along with several other families with whom the Littlefields had been and continued to be associated.(7) Possibly, they followed Reverend Samuel Niles, who preached in Kingstown from 1702–10 before moving back to the Braintree church.(8) They were likely at Kingstown as early as 1702 when the town council required that “Isaac Nash, John Allin are to Apear at” the next meeting “to Answere for there being in” [this town?] without “Leave of the Councell.” In a subsequent meeting Nash was given time to “bring sufficient bond” to indemnify the town against any requirement for support.(9) There is no evidence that Isaac Nash became a landowner in South Kingstown, but apparently he was able to satisfy the town with a bond or some other method because he was, to the end of his life, considered an official inhabitant of South Kingstown.

In later years, at least, the Nashes fell on hard times. Starting in January 1741, the South Kingstown town council regularly turned its attention to the case of Isaac Nash and his unnamed wife “who are among the poor of the town.”(10) They were provided from time to time with clothing and funds for their room and board which would go to their caretakers. While the town expected to provide some support to indigent residents, local leaders and constables carefully guarded the town from encroachment by residents who “belonged” to other towns, warning them out on a regular basis.(11)

Three Sons

The elderly and impoverished Isaac Nash had at least three living sons, Jonathan, Ebenezer, and Nathan, who took turns over the course of the next six years going to the Council to plead for funds to support their parents. Jonathan Nash was the first to make a request on 12 January 1741.(12) “Jonathan informed sd Council that his Father and Mother Viz Isaac & his Wife, of this Town, are reduced very poor & not capable to support and maintain themselves. And prays this Town Council to provide or order such things for their support as shall be by sd Council thought necessary. Upon due Consideration, This Town Council Agrees with sd Jonathan to Board his Father and Mother at 16/p Week …”

Jonathan returned to the town council again that year, when the officials granted him £16 9s “for Boarding his Father and Mother to this day.”(13)

In September 1741 the Council expressed skepticism about the subsidy and in October summoned Isaac, Jonathan, and Ruth Nash (almost certainly a daughter of Isaac and Dorothy) “to declare to said Town Council what they know about the Estate of Isaac Nash,” a report having reached them that the man actually possessed a “considerable estate.”(14) Presumably the poverty was verified because a year later Jonathan received £10 8s for boarding his father and mother.(15)

Sometime before 11 April 1743 Jonathan Nash and his wife left South Kingstown.(16) Jonathan’s brother Ebenezer Nash took over the support of his parents, and the subsidy of £16 was paid to him. Ebenezer also announced that he was taking care of his nephew, “one of the sons of Jonathan Nash,” a four-year-old boy, the parents “not being in this town to take care of said children.” Ebenezer asked for and got an allowance of 8 shillings per week to board his nephew until the next town meeting.

Ebenezer reported at the same meeting that Jonathan’s unnamed young son had two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, who was nine years old.(17) The Council immediately bound out Elizabeth Nash as apprentice to Lott Tripp of nearby Charlestown. As was typical he agreed to “learn her to read” and to provide a suit of clothes at the end of her indenture, when she turned twenty-one.

As a result of Ebenezer’s disclosures, the South Kingstown town council ordered Jonathan Nash and his wife to appear at the next meeting and answer to the council on the subject of their children becoming chargeable to the town.(18) The parents could “not be found,” and they did not appear at the July 1743 council meeting. Nine-year-old Mary Nash was also put into an apprenticeship, in her case with Ichabod Sheffield, a wealthy Narragansett planter.(19) Sheffield died soon after, and her period of service was priced out in the inventory of his estate. Sheffield’s (apparently) enslaved servant, “a Negro Man called Jack,” had a far greater value.(20)

Snippet from the inventory of the estate of Ichabod Sheffield, 14 Oct. 1743, South Kingstown Town Council and Probate Records, 4:21.

Jonathan Nash’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth acquired household skills and basic literacy during their indentures. Doubtless they acquired specialized skills in line with whatever was bringing money into the household, such as sewing, dairy, weaving, or similar pursuits. Mary’s term ended satisfactorily in the eyes of the Town Council; on 16 May 1752 the councilors noted that

“Whereas Mary Nash was Bound an Apprentice to Ichabod Sheffield the Indentures being now out and Truly Performed on both sides according to the True intent and meaning it is Therefore voted that sd. indentures be delivered up to her canceled.”(21)

After the disposition of Jonathan’s children, there followed a few years of regular subsidies to support Isaac Nash and his unnamed wife. Captain Robert Hazard, overseer of the poor in South Kingstown, procured shoes, blankets, flannel shirts and a jacket for Isaac and his spouse. Then on 11 June 1744 Ebenezer came to the town meeting to report that his mother, Isaac’s wife, had died on May 6.(22) Although he does not name her, this is almost certainly Dorothy (Littlefield) Nash, age about 70. The town refunded Ebenezer for sundries involved in burying his mother; in turn, he kept her blankets as part of his subsidy for boarding her.

In July 1745 the third son of Isaac Nash, Nathan Nash, reported to the councilors that his father “was not so well provided for as he might be” in the home of his brother, Ebenezer Nash.(23) A month later Ebenezer appeared before the Town Council and “refused to keep his father Isaac Nash one of the Poor of this Town any Longer. And said Isaac nash his Son Nathan Nash appeared before sd. Town Council and Would Board his Father the sd. Isaac Nash and provide for him sufficient meat drink Washing Lodging Attendance and summer clothing during his Natural life and would at his own charge bury his said father after his death on condition this Town Council allow him therefore fifteen shillings per week during his said father’s natural life.”(24)

Thus the care of Isaac was transferred a second time to another son. The Council ordered Ebenezer to transport Isaac’s bed and linens to Nathan Nash’s house.

The payments were increased and now went to Nathan, continuing until 21 January 1747, when Isaac Nash died; he was around 74 or older (based on his marriage date of 1694, when he was likely at least 21).(25) Nathan came to the council meeting carrying apparel and bedding that the town had provided for his father. Their value was calculated and deducted from the last payment the town had made, so the son would have trekked home on that wintry day carrying his father’s clothing and blanket.

The Death of Ebenezer Nash

Two years later, Ebenezer Nash, “labourer,” died, as reported in December 1749 by Thomas Grinnell to the Town Council.(26) But “whereas the widow and nearest of kin to Ebenezer Nash have heretofore refused to administer on the personal estate of Ebenezer Nash,” Thomas Grinnell took on the task, “being the largest creditor” on Ebenezer’s estate. No kinship with Ebenezer was recorded after the town meeting, but Thomas’ daughter was probably Ebenezer’s widow.(27)

Grinnell completed his task as administrator in a few weeks. Oliver Hazard and Peleg Peckham, two men who were frequently called upon to value the more modest estates in town, appraised Ebenezer’s belongings. The Council accepted their inventory on 18 January 1750.(28) It was worth less than his brother Isaac Jr.’s had been at £48 and 9 shillings. He left one cow, one old gun, three old pewter platters, three old pewter basins, three old pewter plates, six old pewter spoons, two old iron trammels, two old chairs, and £18 in debts.

Three years after Ebenezer’s death, on 13 November 1752, the Town Council voted that

“Ann Nash Daughter of Ebenezer Nash deceased be bound an apprentice to Joseph Northrup until she be eighteen years of age, She being Nine years old the 19th day of May 1752. Said Northrup to learn hir to Read and Write a Leagable hand and also to larn his taylor’s trade…, and to dismiss hir at the age of Eighteen with a New Suit of apparel Fitting hir Body throughout besides hir Every Day wearing apparel.”(29)

Evidence that Ebenezer Nash’s wife, whose name has not been found, was the daughter of Thomas Grinnell of South Kingstown comes after the 1758 death of Thomas Grinnell. In 1758 the will of Thomas Greenal/Grinnell of South Kingstown gave and bequeathed certain amounts to daughters Mary Ladd and Elizabeth B[ea?]man and then provided relatively small items for his Nash grandchildren, a good indication that a married Nash daughter had passed away. Combined with his administration of Ebenezer Nash’s estate, a solid case can be made that Littlefield Nash’s mother was born a Greenal/Grinnell.

Naming sequence suggests a birth order: “unto my beloved grandson Littlefield Nash when he shall arrive to the Age of Twenty one Year[s] Three pounds in money old Tenor of said Colony And my Large Gun,” a weapon that Littlefield may well have already carried in the Campaign of 1755 and 1756, participating as a scout under Captain Israel Putnam in and around Fort Ticonderoga. Grinnell gave grandson Jonathan Nash “three pounds in money… and the gun that belonged to his father.” He bequeathed an iron pot and a trammel that had belonged to her mother to his granddaughter Ann Nash, along with 40 shillings. He bequeathed six pounds to his grandson Isaac Nash. All four children were minors in 1758 when Thomas wrote this will; the gifts of their parents’ belongings reveal that they were orphans.(30)

Given that Ann was known to be nine years old in 1752, so born 1743, the two oldest, Littlefield and Jonathan, were born late enough to be under twenty-one at the time of the will-writing in 1758, so say after 1737, but before 1743. Because Littlefield had a sister Ann Nash, documented in both his grandfather’s will and in the indenture records of the town, the evidence that Ebenezer Nash was Littlefield Nash’s father is quite compelling.

Littlefield Nash

Because Littlefield Nash was not yet twenty-one in January 1758 when his grandfather wrote his will, he was likely born between 1737 and 1739. So at the time of his enlistment in military service on 9 September 1755, he was probably sixteen or seventeen years old, not an unusual age for such service. Why he made his way from South Kingstown to Plainfield, Connecticut, and enlisted in service when he might just as easily have enlisted at home, is unclear. Could service with the legendary Israel Putnam have attracted him? It’s easy to imagine tales of Putnam, the eastern Connecticut wolf-slayer, permeating rural Rhode Island .(31) Littlefield served with several units in the French and Indian War, honing his own scouting and survival skills.(32)

Midcentury was a time of expansion throughout New England. Littlefield and dozens of other Plainfield, Connecticut residents formed a plan to establish a new town of Plainfield along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire in the 1760s.(33) So Littlefield kept wandering and built a new life in New Hampshire.

There are occasional payments to Littlefield Nash in Plainfield, New Hampshire town records for road work; as a landowner (108) acres he was assessed a poll tax regularly until 1799.(34). Along with other Plainfield citizens, he signed a protest and boycott against the British occupation of Boston on 28 July 1774.(35) He served in the Revolutionary War as Corporal in Captain Josiah Russell’s Company of Rangers, under General Jonathan Chase, for approximately 144 days.(36)

In summary, Ebenezer Nash and his wife, probable surname Grinnell, of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, were very likely the parents of Littlefield Nash of Plainfield, New Hampshire. Littlefield’s father died in 1749. Had Ebenezer Nash been a difficult man, based on the fact that his brother Nathan told the Town Council in 1745 that Ebenezer was neglecting their father? Was Littlefield’s mother also deceased or somehow incapacitated by the time Littlefield left town, since she was definitely deceased by 1758? One thing is clear: caring for indigent family members was a problem for the 18th century Nashes and for the South Kingstown community. Littlefield Nash may have had good reasons for setting off as a young man and seeking another life.

1. Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 1755-1762, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, vol. 9 (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford: 1903) vol. 1(1755-1757):37, 79, 101, 128. Littlefield Nash not found in volume 2.
2. Philip Zea, “The Settlement of Plainfield ‘Upon Ye New Hampshire Grants,’” in Philip Zea and Nancy Norwalk, eds., Choice White Pines and Good Land: A History of Plainfield and Meriden, New Hampshire (Portsmouth, N.H., Peter E. Randall: 1991), 23–24, citing Proprietors’ Book (1761–1802), entry for 12 December 1763, town clerk’s office, Plainfield.
3. Edward Everts Jackson, comp., “Records of the First Church at Braintree, Mass.,” citing Rev. William P. Lunte’s copy of Records of the First Church at Braintree, Mass., in possession of Quincy, Mass. City Clerk [hereafter, “Records of the First Church at Braintree”], NEHG Register 59 (1905):154.
4. Donna Beaupre, compiler, Founders of Plainfield, 2011, p. 5; an unsourced pamphlet in the possession of Gay Auerbach.
5. Pricilla Eaton, The Littlefield Genealogy: Descendants of Edmund Littlefield of Wells, Maine Through Six Generations, MGS Special Publication no. 97 [hereafter, Priscilla Eaton, The Littlefield Genealogy] (Waterville, Maine, Maine Genealogical Society: 2024), vol. 1, pp. 25, 73–75. The author also contributed details of the Nash family to this publication (72, footnote 516).
6. Thomas Littlefield of Wells died before 5 March 1689/90, when an inquest was conducted at Wells Court of Pleas into his “untimely death.” His demise was likely related to the Berwick drownings of “Samuell Lord of Berwick” and “Robert Houston of Dover” which the Jury of Inquest returned a verdict on at the same session: Robert E. Moody, Province and Court Records of Maine, 3 (1680–1692) (Portland: Maine Hist. Soc, 1947), 290.
7. On 5 November 1718, Isaac and Dorothy (“Daughter of Thomas Littlefield, decd”) Nash “of Kings Town in the Collony of Rhode Island” sold the uplands and marshland in Wells that Dorothy had inherited from her father: York County, Maine, Land Records 9 (1714– 1719):146–147.
8. The association of Littlefields with the Niles family started at least as far back as Braintree. Reverend Samuel Niles preached in Kings Town from 1702–10 (J. R. Cole, History of Washington and Kent Counties, R.I., pp. 283 and 490–491). Samuel’s brother Nathaniel Niles left a will in South Kingstown in the winter of 1727/28, leaving his “Mantion house” and land to various sons and mentioning both son and grandson named Nathaniel Nash (South Kingstown, R.I., Town Council & Probate 2:95) and Gerald James Parsons, “The Children of Nathaniel Niles,” The American Genealogist 51(1975):118– 119). Isaac Nash Jr.’s wife Elizabeth (Tucker) Nash married as her second husband Ebenezer Niles (Anne McKee Niles, “Elizabeth (Tucker) (Nash) (Niles) Kenyon of Westerly, South Kingstown, and Charlestown, Rhode Island, and Stonington, Connecticut,” The American Genealogist 76(2001):248, 250 for an analysis of the original record and James Arnold’s misreading).
9. Both meetings transcribed in George Loxton, Early Records of Kings Towne, Rhode Island, including the towns of North and South Kingstown, Exeter, and Narragansett, Rhode Island prior to 1723, currently in preparation, unpaginated, entry for “Probate Records 1692–1719 (currently bound as volume 5),” 5:14. Any follow-up to the request for sufficient bond has not been found among the confused record books of early Kings Towne, held among the damaged records at North Kingstown town hall.
10. For evidence that this is the older Isaac Nash: Prior researchers may have assumed Dorothy (Littlefield) Nash had died long before 1741, because on 13 May 1723, Isaac Nash Jr. married Elizabeth Tucker. Elizabeth (Tucker) Nash’s husband died in 1726, when she appeared before the South Kingstown town council with an inventory of his estate. (South Kingstown Probate & Town Council Records, 2:56–7). The Isaac Nash Junior who married Elizabeth Tucker was Dorothy’s son, not her widowed husband, so that Isaac and Dorothy may have still been alive in 1741. Isaac Jr.’s marriage date of 1723 suggests he was born around 1700, which fits well given the parents’ 1694 marriage.
11. For warning out practices in South Kingstown: Cherry F. Bamberg, “A Word of Introduction” in Linda L. Mathew, Gleanings from Rhode Island Town Records: South Kingstown Town Council Records, 1743-1772 (Hope, R.I.: R.I. Genealogical Society, 2024), pp. i–ii.
12. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 3:117, (second set of page numbers, FamilySearch film #007650044, image 778 of 882), entry for 12 January 1740/41.
13. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 3:162, entry for 8 March 1740/41.
14. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 3:138–139 and 141–142, entries for 14 Sept. 1741 and 12 Oct. 1741. Most likely, Ruth was a daughter, named after Dorothy Littlefield Nash’s mother Ruth.
15. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 3:178, entry for 11 Oct. 1742.
16. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:4–5 (second occurrence of the page numbers, FamilySearch film 007650045, image 240 of 717), entry for 11 April 1743.
17. Based on Mary’s stated age of nine, and assuming she was Jonathan’s oldest living child, Jonathan could have been between ages 41 and 45 in 1741 when he first showed up before the Town Council. This makes a birthday between 1695 and 1700 possible for Jonathan, which fits with his parents’ marriage date of 1694 and easily accommodates the birth of his deceased brother Isaac Jr. who married in 1723. Of course, the birth order is uncertain.
18. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records 4:10, 13 June 1743.
19. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:73, 12 July. A few weeks later Ichabod Sheffield also sought to bind Elizabeth, who by then was in the care of Lott Tripp.
20. South Kingstown Town Council and Probate Records, 4:16–22, inventory of the estate of Ichabod Sheffield, 14 Oct. 1743. On 10 June 1745 John Babcock sought to take over Mary’s apprenticeship; it appears that she stayed with the Sheffield widow for the term of her indenture (South Kingstown Town Council and Probate Records, vol. 4:72.) However Mary Nash served as witness to John Babcock’s will written on 13 October 1763 (South Kingstown Council and Probate Records, 5:265.)
21. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:215, 16 May 1752.
22. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:42, 11 June 1744.
23. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:76, 8 July 1745.
24. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:78, 19 Aug. 1745.
25. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, Town council meeting, 4:115-6, 9 Feb 1747.
26. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:182, 11 Dec. 1749 (note the volume is paginated twice; this is the second appearance of p. 182; FamilySearch Film # 007650045, image 336 of 717).
27. Thomas Grinnell was declared a freeman of Rhode Island in May 1696: Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 3(1696):311. Evidence of relationship follows in details, upcoming, of Thomas Grinnell’s will.
28. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:312-13, inventory of the estate of Ebenezer Nash, recorded 6 Jan. 1750.
29. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Probate & Town Council Records, 4:219, 13 Nov. 1752.
30. South Kingstown, Kings Co., R.I., Town Council & Probate Records, 5(1743–1772):131- 33, will of Thomas Greenal, signed 26 Jan. 1758. The will was proved after the death of Thomas Grinnell on 14 July 1760. Also, 5:138–39, inventory of Thomas Greenal, submitted 29 May 1760, totaled £1161.2.3, about half in cash and notes. The remainder of his estate went to his son and executor, Benjamin Greenal; Benjamin was instructed to support his widowed mother for the remainder of her life.
31. For Israel Putnam’s early exploits, “Israel Putnam,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Putnam).
32. Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 1755–1762, in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, (Hartford: CHS, 1903), v. 1 (1755–1757):37, 79, 101, 128. His service included Third Company, Major Payson’s unit, 9 Sep–25 Nov 1755; Col. Bagley’s Regiment, Capt. Putnam’s Company, 25 Nov–30 May 1756; First Regiment, Capt. Putnam’s Company, expedition against Crown Point, half-pay list for service ending 31 May 1756; also Third Regiment, 2nd Co., Lieut-Col. Payson, half-pay, discharged 14 June 1756. “Littlefield Nash” was captured on Lake George, imprisoned by the French, and exchanged back to the British forces on 15 November 1759 according to a modern and not specifically sourced accounting: But Garfield Loescher, “Rogers Rangers Pvts. Rosster, 1755-1761,” typewscrpt, p. 203; New York Heritage Digital Collections, citing Ticonderoga Historical Society, Ticonderoga, N.Y. No other mention of this imprisonment has been found.
33. Christopher P. Bickford, Plainfield Transformed: Three Centuries of Life in a Connecticut Town 1699–1999 (Plainfield, Connecticut: Plainfield Historical Society, 1999), 42.
34. Kay MacLeay, Plainfield Genealogies May 2012 Edition (Plainfield, N.H., Plainfield Historical Society: 2012), 323.
35. New Hampshire, State’s Copy of Records of Plainfield, citing Plainfield Proprietors’ Records, Book 1, pp. 68 and 73; “Town Records 1761–1802,” vol. 3, pp. 40–42, FamilySearch (film 005510999, images 169–170).
36. FamilySearch “United States Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775–1783” holds six New Hampshire entries for Littlefield Nash, for instance, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-994M-9CHS.