So Many Samuel Smiths

The location of Northfield, Massachusetts, in Franklin County.

I recently wrote about my third great-grandfather, Samuel Belding Smith and his son, Samuel G. Smith. Prepare to get really confused, because there are several more Samuel Smiths still to meet. This part of our family tree has been a bit mind-boggling, and frankly is still something I'm puzzling over, so I hesitate to write about the Samuels in great depth at this point. This will be strictly an overview, and the research on our Samuel Smith ancestors will continue.

Most of what we know about the Samuels was uncovered by my grandmother's cousin Barbara, who worked diligently with a professional genealogist in New England to determine the correct line of descent, distinguish one Samuel from the next, and untangle the question of their wives. Here is a brief summary of what Barbara uncovered.

Samuel Smith (b. abt. 1760)
Samuel Belding Smith's father was Samuel Smith, my fourth great-grandfather. We know next to nothing about him, except that he was born in the 1760s, likely in Northfield, Massachusetts. Massachusetts Town Vital Collections 1620-1988 tells us that Samuel Smith Junior married Anna Wright, on June 10, 1784 in Northfield. She was the daughter of Aaron Wright and Anna Graves. The record indicates that both Samuel and Anna were from Northfield. Samuel and Anna had two children together: Pliny Smith (b. 1790) and Sophia Smith (b. 1791). Samuel later married Hannah Belding, with whom he had our ancestor Samuel Belding Smith. It is possible, but unconfirmed, that the marriage of Samuel and Anna ended not in death but divorce. It is also possible that Anna remarried Ozias Elmer and had more children, but there is not enough documentation to be certain. Samuel would have been old enough to fight in much of the Revolutionary War, although I have not found service records that can be definitely attributed to him. He certainly lived in very interesting times, being a young man at the time the American colonies declared independence. I wish we knew more about his experiences.

Capt. Samuel Smith (b. 1735)
Samuel Smith's father was Samuel Smith, known as "Captain Samuel Smith." He was born in 1735 in Northfield, Massachusetts, and died just across the border in Winchester, New Hampshire, in January 1823. Captain Samuel married Mary Wright, daughter of Nehemiah Wright and Mary Sheldon of Northfield. After Mary's death, he married Hannah Stebbins. We know that Samuel Smith purchased property in Winchester and lived there for some time. My grandmother had the original land grant for the property, and I remember seeing it in her office when I was a young woman. It did not come to me with her other genealogical materials and is now presumed lost. While Samuel lived in Winchester, his social obligations were based in Northfield, seven miles to the south. He was a founding member of the Masons in Northfield. The book A History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts (authors: Josiah Howard Temple, George Sheldon; published: 1875) states: "In 1800.... Capt. Samuel Smith who lived over the line in Winchester but attended meeting in Northfield, had a heavy two horse carriage." (p. 353). He also appears to have donated pipe organs to churches in both Northfield and Winchester. The biggest mystery to me has always been the "Captain" prefacing Samuel's name. He does not have a Revolutionary War service record. Barbara told me that Samuel was a loyalist who was put in jail in Charlestown, Massachusetts soon after the American colonists declared independence. Jailing British sympathizers was a common occurrence during the revolution, as it prevented them from providing support to the British cause. While we don't know the specifics of Samuel's experience, the fact that he was still in America, apparently prosperous and owning the honorific "Captain" in 1800 indicates that he must have been forgiven by his neighbors to some extent. However, estate papers reveal that Samuel was deeply in debt at the time of his death, and he left no will. He is an intriguing ancestor, and one I look forward to researching further.

Deacon Samuel Smith (b. 1705)
Captain Samuel Smith's father, also Samuel Smith, was born on 1 October 1705 in Northfield, Massachusetts. In 1727, at the age of 21, Samuel married Sarah Morton, the daughter of Abraham Morton and Sarah Kellogg. The Morton family was from nearby Hatfield. Samuel and Sarah were married for forty years and had ten children together in Northfield. Samuel worked as a deacon in the church there and was also a blacksmith. According to Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book Vol. 063, 1907, Samuel was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety in Northfield. In 1775, at the age of seventy, he responded to the Lexington Alarm. When British soldiers marched from Boston toward Concord to seize munitions that were stockpiled there, 77 militiamen met them on Lexington Common. The British opened fire. An alarm was sent out to local supporters of the American cause, and armed men, including Samuel, assembled upon the route the British were taking to fire at the retreating soldiers. This was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's very interesting that Deacon Samuel took up arms for the colonists, while his son evidently had strong loyalist leanings. Sarah Morton Smith died in 1767, and Samuel remarried Abigail Horton. Abigail Horton's first husband was Ebenezer Field of Deerfield, and is connected to my husband's Field ancestors (Ebenezer is my husband's second cousin seven times removed). Samuel died in 1799 at the age of 94. He lived to see the success of the American Revolution and an enormous amount of change in his lifetime.

My next post will cover the three remaining men in our direct Smith lineage, all the way back to our immigrant ancestor. Yes, there is one more Samuel still to come!