A Tale of Massacre and Kidnapping Ending in a Blended Family

My tree is more of a wreath.  Everyone is related to someone else in some way, even as my husband and I are 9th cousins once removed.  In that spirit, today I present a story from my tree that connects my French Canadian paternal side with my English maternal ancestry in Wells, Maine (US). This came about through an Indian massacre in Wells, ME, on 10 Aug 1703.  Not all were killed, and many women and children were kidnapped and taken north to the province of Quebec.  Sometimes these captives were kept with the native tribe, but often they were sold or traded to the French. That is the case with the family that I am going to discuss here. 

My ancestry in Wells, Maine began with the founding.  My 11th GrGrandfather was Edmund LITTLEFIELD, born 1592 in England and died 1661 in Wells, York County, Maine.  He built the first Saw and Grist Mills, and first dwelling house, in 1640/41.  In 1653, he and other family members were among the signers of the incorporation of Wells, ME.  Edmund was married to Agnes/Annis AUSTIN in England, where they had children, including a daughter Elizabeth in 1627 and a son Thomas in 1633. In 1638, Agnes, six of her children (ranging in age from 14 to 2, including Elizabeth aged 11 and Thomas aged 5 years), and two servants, sailed on the Bevis, out of Southampton.  Her husband had likely come previously.  
The family settled first in Exeter, NH where Edmund signed the Exeter Combination on 4 July 1639.  Not long afterwards, the family removed to Wells, ME.

In Maine, Elizabeth LITTLEFIELD was married to John WAKEFIELD. They are my 10th GrGrandparents, through their daughter Mary and her husband William FROST.   Her brother Thomas LITTLEFIELD married twice, first to Ruth, and later to Sarah. With Ruth, Thomas had a son Moses Littlefield, born in 1666. Moses grew up to marry Martha LORD, daughter of Nathan LORD.  Moses and Martha had 3 children by 1703, Aaron, Ruth and Tabitha. These children are my 2nd cousins, 10 times removed.  

There were many Indian attacks in Maine over the years, and many members of the LITTEFIELD, WAKEFIELD and FROST families were killed, scalped and left for dead, and kidnapped. One such attack came in Wells, on 10 August 1703.  Martha LORD LITTLEFIELD, and her three children were kidnapped in a raid. Martha herself may have escaped or eventually been ransomed, because she was back in Wells when Moses died in 1707.  The fate of young Tabitha is unknown, though there were rumors that she was among a group of natives that showed up in Wells, Maine much later. Ruth was raised by French Ursuline nuns in a convent, and in her adult life became a nun herself, known as Sister Angelique, in Montreal.  Young Aaron was seemingly raised by priests in Boucherville.  His name was changed to Pierre Augustin and he was baptized as a Catholic. At age 22, Aaron (now Pierre Augustin) was married in Boucherville, to Marie BRUNEL, daughter of Jacques BRUNEL and Suzanne BERTRAULT/BERTRAU.  This is where the branches in my tree get tangled.  Jacques BRUNEL and Suzanne BERTRAULT are my 8th GrGrandparents, through their son Jacques, brother of Marie!  My line goes down from BRUNEL to BRODEUR to my LAMBERT line.  So, I am related to this Quebec branch of LITTLEFIELDS on both the French Canadian side (BRUNEL and BERTRAU) and the Maine English side (LITTLEFIELD).  

As for the ancestry of Suzanne BERTRAULT, that’s a very interesting story as well! Her parents were Jacques BERTEAU and Gillette BANNE/BONNE. Gillette was a Filles a Marier. She and her husband were convicted of a very messy and very brutal murder of their son in law.  They were both executed in an equally gruesome manner for their crimes. Jacques and Gillette were my 9th GrGrandparents.