Manuscript Group 1207, Little Family Papers, 1723-1911 (Bulk dates: 1760 – 1820, 1903 – 1906)

Archives Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs

Manuscript Group 1207, Little Family

Papers, 1723-1911 (Bulk dates: 1760-1820, 1903-1906), 1 linear foot / 3 boxes

Call Number: MG 1207 + Box number

Summary

• Biographical Note

• Provenance Note

• Scope and Content Note

• Related Collection

• Little Family Tree

  Summary:

  Surveys; indentures; legal documents; correspondence; and other papers of the Little family of Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  The earliest documents in the collection pertain to Colonel John Little (ca. 1680-1751) who left Scotland and settled in New Jersey about 1715.  The collection includes materials relative to the dispute between John Little and Robert Hunter Morris; a copy of John Merryman’s will; a license to Thomas Little for distilling, 1794; as well as items signed by James Alexander, Andrew Bell, Richard Howell, William L. Marcy, John Y. Mason, Robert Hunter Morris, James Parker, and Isaac Southard.  Genealogical information on the Little family and Williamson family of New Brunswick is also included.

  Gift of the Connecticut Historical Society, 1984.

  Biographical Note:

  The Little Family of Monmouth County, New Jersey is descended from John and Isabel Little of Scotland.  After his wife’s death, John Little (ca. 1680-1751) immigrated to America with his two sons Thomas Little (d. 1731) and John Little, Jr. (ca. 1712-1785) and settled in Shrewsbury Township, Monmouth County around 1715.  Around 1724, he acquired a plantation near Tinton Falls, New Jersey and in 1746 several thousand acres of land on New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay peninsula.  In his later life, he also owned a grist and saw mill, both of which were passed down to his son, John Little, Jr. during his lifetime.

  From 1725-1751, John Little, Sr. served as the ruling elder of the Presbyterian Congregation of Shrewsbury and Shark River, and in 1724, he was appointed a judge of Monmouth County’s Court of Common Pleas.  He was appointed the presiding judge of that court in 1738 and served until his death in 1751.  He also participated in the colonial wars against Spain and France during the 1730s and 40s.

  In 1732, he married a second time to Hannah Woolley Allen.  He died on the Little plantation near Tinton Falls on March 2, 1751.

  John Little, Jr., born around 1712, oversaw and eventually owned the family plantation, his own plantation, the grist and saw mills, livestock, at least twelve slaves, and the Barnegat Bay lands.  He was appointed a judge of the County Court in 1755, was an elder of the Presbyterian Congregation of Shrewsbury and Shark River, and was appointed by King George II as a trustee in the Royal Charter of the Presbyterian Churches of Monmouth County.  He served in both King George’s War and the French and Indian War, and later, was an active member of the Shrewsbury Revolutionary Committee.

  In 1736, John Little, Jr. married Moica Longstreet (b. 1716), with whom he had seven children.  John Little died at the Little plantation in January of 1785.

  Thomas Little (1741-1810), John and Moica Little’s eldest son, was born on the Little plantation on July 7, 1741.  He helped run the family plantation until the outbreak of the Revolution when he became an officer in the Third Regiment of the Monmouth Militia.  He was captured by the British on January 27, 1777 and held prisoner in New York until he was exchanged in 1781.  In 1783, he was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Monmouth County where he served until 1789.  He was also a member of the New Jersey State Assembly from 1792-1807, of the State Council, and in 1802-1803, the acting vice president of the Council of New Jersey where he voted to abolish slavery in New Jersey.  Like his forefathers, he was an elder of the Presbyterian Congregation of Shrewsbury and Shark River.

  On January 23, 1791, Thomas Little married Lydia Drummond, with whom he had five children.  He died on the Little plantation on December 10, 1810.

  Thomas and Lydia Little’s sons, Thomas Little (b. 1797) and John T. Little (1791-1825), inherited the plantation and the Barnegat Bay property upon their father’s death.  Being unable to agree upon the division of the plantation land, the matter was taken before a judge and the property containing the homestead granted to Thomas Little.  Thomas and his wife, Susan Doty, died with no heirs and the land passed out of the Little family.  The property inherited by John T. Little, which also contained a house, passed down to his children, who had sold it by the 1850s.  In 1816, the brothers Thomas and John T. Little also began to sell off portions of the Barnegat Bay land, part of which went to Michael Ortley who founded Ortley Beach.

  John T. and Eleanor (Williamson) Little’s grandson, Thomas Little was born on December 4, 1849.  He was one of the five children of Arthur Williamson Little (1819-1898) and Martha Jane Agnew.  He married Charlotte Wolcott Dennis on January 7, 1891, with whom he had at least two sons.  He lived in New York City where he was a professor at Columbia University, and later moved to Hartford, Connecticut.  During the early 1900s, he traced the descendants of the brothers Thomas and Theophilus Little in order to discern the rights of their descendants to some of the old Barnegat Bay property purchased by John Little, Sr. in 1746.

See Little Family Tree.

Sources:

Little, Donald C. Descendants of Col. John Little, Esq. of Shrewsbury Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey (Forest Lake: Edwardsville, KS, 1951).

Provenance Note:

These papers were donated by the Connecticut Historical Society in October of 1984.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers consist of the correspondence, land deeds, and legal papers of the Little Family, particularly Thomas Little (b. 1849).  The documents date from 1723-1911 with bulk dates of 1760-1820 and 1903-1906.

The papers are largely made up of the 1903-1906 correspondence of Thomas Little (b. 1849) in which he researches the descendants of Thomas Little (1741-1810) and Theophilus Little (1744-1825) and their rights to land in Monmouth County, New Jersey.  The correspondents are mostly Little family members.

The papers also contain a large number of Little family deeds pertaining to land in Howell, Shrewsbury, and Tinton Falls in Monmouth County, and Dover in Ocean County, New Jersey. These documents have bulk dates of 1760-1820 and include land surveys and survey maps.  Littles involved in the land deals are John Little, Jr. (ca. 1712-1785), Thomas Little (1741-1810), John Little (1750-1779), John T. Little, Thomas Little, Jr. (b. 1797), Arthur W. Little, Jane Amanda Little, Thomas Little (d. bef. 1853), and Theodosia D. Little.

There are also a smaller number of legal and financial documents in the collection.  These items include mortgages, bonds, promissory notes, accounts, receipts, certificates, court decisions, legal complaints, probate records, wills, newspaper clippings, and genealogy/land research notes.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 1244, William Little & Company Records

Folder List:

Little Family Tree:

John Little, Sr. (ca. 1680-1751) = 1) Isabel ( )
|
2) Hannah Woolley Allen
|

ThomasLittle (d. 1731) = Mary Brown

John Little, Jr. (ca. 1712-1785) = 1) Moica Longstreet (1716-1750)
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2) Elizabeth Wales
|

Isabel Little (b. 1737) = David Knott

Mary Little (b. 1739) = Daniel Seabrook

*Thomas Little (1741-1810) = Lydia Drummond

Theophilus Little (1744-1825) = Mary Polhemus

Hannah Little (b. 1746) = 1) Benjamin Dennis (d.1778)

Anne Little (b. 1748)          2) John Lambert

John Little (1750-1779) = Mary Leeds

*Thomas Little (1741-1810) = Lydia Drummond
|

**John T. Little (1791-1825) = Eleanor Williamson (d. 1826)

Abigail Drummond Little (b. 1794) = William Estelle

Thomas Little (b. 1797) = Susan Doty (d. 1888)

Anna C. Little (b. 1799) = Charles G. Price

Lydia Little (b. 1801) = Joseph Doty

**John
T. Little (1791-1825) = Eleanor Williamson (d. 1826)
|

Jane Amanda Little

***Arthur Williamson Little (1819-1898) = Martha Jane Agnew

John Little (d. 1844), unmarried

Robert Little (died age 10 months)

Thomas Little (d. bef. 1853) = Theodosia Dennis

***Arthur W. Little (1819-1898) = Martha Jane Agnew
|

Arthur Hutchinson Little

Thomas Little (b. 1849) = Charlotte Wolcott Dennis
|

Thomas Wolcott Little (b. 1892)

Drummond Williamson Little (b. 1895)

Processed by Kim Charlton, January 2000 as part of the “Farm to City”
project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.

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