The Timber Barons of Kittery: Nathan Lord I

The maternal ancestry of Martha Lord (1667–1726)—mother to the centenarian Martha Littlefield—takes us directly into the foundation of Kittery and Berwick, Maine. The Lord family and their adjacent lines were prominent landowners, timber mill operators, and garrison commanders who bore the heaviest brunt of the early Anglo-Wabanaki border conflicts.

Our 9th great-grandfather, Nathan Lord I (c. 1630–1690), immigrated from Kent, England, and settled in Kittery (the part that later became Berwick) by 1652. He married Martha Conley, daughter of Abraham Conley, one of the region's earliest wealthy landholders.

• The Industry: Nathan Lord did not just farm; he partnered with his father-in-law to operate water-powered sawmills along the Asbenbedick (Salmon Falls) River. This region possessed some of the finest old-growth white pine in the world, heavily coveted by the Royal Navy for ship masts.
• The Strategic Target: Because timber mills were the primary economic engine of English expansion into Wabanaki territory, they became the highest-priority targets for French-backed indigenous raids during King William's War.

The 1690 Salmon Falls Massacre

The defining historical intersection for this generation occurred on March 18, 1690. A combined force of French soldiers under Quentin de West and Abenaki warriors launched a devastating surprise dawn assault on the settlement of Salmon Falls (Berwick).

                    THE 1690 SALMON FALLS ASSAULT

  

     French-Abenaki Strike Force ──────► Surprise Dawn Ambush (March 18)

                                              │

                                              ▼

     • Fortified Garrisons Breached ──────────► 30+ Settlers Killed / 50+ Captured

                                              │

                                              ▼

     • The Lord Family Response ──────────────► Nathan Lord I dies during the 

                                                wartime evacuation period.

The attack was brutal and systematic: fortified homes were burned, livestock was slaughtered, and more than 80 settlers were either killed or taken on the long march to captivity in Canada.

While our 8th great-grandmother Martha Lord (then a young married woman of 23) survived the initial onslaught, her father, Nathan Lord I, died later that same year amidst the disease, displacement, and ongoing skirmishes that crippled the region following the massacre.

The Tozer-Playstead Garrison Connection

Through Martha Lord’s siblings and cousins, the family line is inextricably linked to the famous Tozer Garrison of Berwick.

• The Sentry Stand: When the garrison was attacked during an earlier conflict (King Philip's War), a young girl held the door shut against Native warriors long enough for fifteen women and children—including members of the extended Lord and Littlefield families—to escape out the back into the safety of the main settlement.
• The Resilience: This constant state of siege meant that Martha Lord raised her children, including our 7th great-grandmother Martha Littlefield, with an acute defensive mindset. They learned to manufacture their own ammunition, ration provisions for long winters spent entirely inside stockades, and maintain independent trade networks along the coast when land routes were cut off.

The Core Lineage Blueprint

This maternal layer completes the foundational frontier grid of our family tree before they pivoted southwest into New Hampshire and ultimately returned to reclaim Boothbay:

Generation	Individual	Spousal Alliance	Regional Impact
Gen 1	Nathan Lord I (9th Great-Grandfather)	Martha Conley	Foundational timber mill pioneer of Kittery/Berwick; casualty of the 1690 King William's War era.
Gen 2	Martha Lord (8th Great-Grandmother)	Moses Littlefield (Captured 1692, Killed 1707)	Managed the exposed frontier holdings after her husband's capture and death; orchestrated the strategic retreat to Dover, NH.
Gen 3	Martha Littlefield (7th Great-Grandmother)	Thomas Stevens	The centenarian (101 years old) whose life bridged the raw, war-torn frontier straight into the Washington presidency.