Lieutenant Samuel Smith1,2,3,4

M, b. before 6 September 1601, d. 16 January 1681
     Samuel was born in Burstall, County Suffolk, England. He was christened there on 6 September 1601 in St. Mary's Church.5 He was the son of John Smith and Mary Gardiner. Samuel married Elizabeth Smythe, daughter of Philip Smythe and Anne Grymwade, on 6 October 1624 in Whatfield, County Suffolk, England, at St. Margaret's Church. On 10 April 1634, Samuel & his wife, Elizabeth, left from Ipswich aboard the ship, "Elizabeth", mastered by Willis Andrews, bounded for New England. Among the passengers were Samuel Smith aged 32 years & Elizabeth Smith aged 32 years, Samuel aged 9 years, Elizabeth aged 7 years, Mary aged 4 years & Philip aged 1 year..6,7,8,9,10 There is no record of where he landed in the new world, but he is in Watertown by September of the same year, so it is reasonable to expect that it was there that he came ashore. What little there is of records, it seems that Samuel left Watertown and went to Wethersfield with others, built his first home and sometime in 1636 or shortly after brought his family there to a new home. He was known as a “Fellmonger” which means a tanner or a dealer in skins. It is likely that Samuel was a representative of London fur traders. He was a man of means and was at one point noted as one of the wealthiest men of Wethersfield. Another clue is that his son, John, who upon returning to Wethersfield from Hadley in 1672, was voted in as a resident and set up in a “trade of tanning in this town”. Samuel served in positions of responsibility both in Wethersfield and in Hadley which he helped to organize and settle.3 Samuel made his will on 23 June 1680.

I Samuel Smith of Hadley in ye County of Hampshire in ye Colony of Massachusetts in New England being at present of Sound mind & Memory and understanjding & Considering ye uncertainty of my life ye not knowing how soone ye few days of my pilgrimage may expire & run out doe therefore make & ordaine this my Last Will & Testament as followsc - - - I commit my Soule into ye hands of ye Eternall & Ever blessed God [whose I am ?] andinto the armes of my dear redeemer ye Lord Jesus Christ on whom I desire to repose & in whom forever stedfastly to believe for righteousness life & salvation & my body I leave to be interred in ye Earth with a comely burial with assured hope & belief of its resurrection againe from ye depths & ye reuniting of Soule & body through ye glorious _________ of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Glory - - - And for that ______ Estate ye Lord hath abundantly blessed me withal my will is ye after my just debts & dues which of Right or Conscience I owe to any person are payd & my funeral expenses discharged - - - I give & bequeath unto my deare & beloved wife Elizabeth Smith ye absolute cleere free ____ & full use benefit & produce of all my estate whether personal or Reall during ye time or tenrme of her natural life - - - I give to my son Philip Smith eldest son called Samuel all by allotment of Land lyinging ye meadow call great ponset with its appurtenances to be to him & his heir fore ever. Also I give to him ye said Samuel Smith e one half of my homelot lying on ye South side with my dwelling house after ye decease of my wife to be to him & to his heirs for Ever - - - I give & bequeath to my Son John Smith eldest son called John from the west end of ye Barne ye other part of my house lot to be to him & his heirs for Ever confirming to him withal what of ye said Lott I give to his father in his life time viz ye part extending from ye barne to ye Common Streete being about four rod in Breadth - - - I give to my son Chiliab eldest son called Samuel all my alotments of Land in ye meadow called little ponset with it appurtenances alsoe ye allotment called ye skirts o Horean in ye whole to be to him & his heirs for Ever after ye decease of my wife - - - I give to my grand child Samuel Smith son to my son John Smith all my allotment of Land in ye tract of Land called forti acres with its appurtenances when he shall attaine to ye age of one & twenty years to be to him & to his heirs for Ever - - - I give & bequeath to my Daughter Elizabeth Gull twenty pounds ye feather bed on which we lye with all ye furniture thereto belonging she receiving in part of ye said sum at ye decease of my wife - - - I give to my grand child Mary Baal ten pounds provided ye what her husband Samuel Baal shall be found to be indebted to me shall be discounted as part of ye said sum - - - I give & bequeath to all my Grand children ye are now living ne is to Each & Everyone a bible which hey shall receive of my Executors when ab le to read ye same & my Will is ye within Every bible bequeathed as afore said my Executors caus to be written fairely & legally the last twelve of ye Eleventh of Ecclesiastes & ye first verse of ye tweleth Chapter - - - I give to my Eldest son Samuel Smith five shillings- - - All ye remainder of my Estate I give to my Executor hereafter named to be equally divided between them - - - I make Constitute & Ordaine my loving Sons Phillip Smith & Chiliab Smith as Sole Executors & Overseers of this my Will & Testament adnulling & making voyd by these present all former Wills, gifts legacies in any wise or at any time by me Willed, given or bequeathed. In Witness of all which I Seale & Subscribe this twenty Third of June Anno Domini One thousand six hundred & Eightie - - - Samuel Smith & a Seale affixed - - - Samuel Partrigg Letter Titton.11

Samuel departed this life on Thursday, 16 January 1681 in Hadley. The inventory of Samuel's estate was taken on Tuesday, 17 June 1681 by Samuel Church and Samuel Partridgg. They valued the estate at £613 11s. 7d.12

Children of Lieutenant Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Smythe

Citations

  1. [S1314] Paul W. Prindle, The Wife of Lieut. Samuel Smith of Wetherfield, The wife of Lieutenant Samuel Smith of Wethersfield, Connecticut., has often been named erroneously as Elizabeth Chileab. The following article appeared in abbreviated form in "The Hartford Times, " 8 Jan 1956.

    About one year after their arrival from England, Lt. Samuel Smith's wife gave birth to a son,1 to whom they gave the unusual name of Chileab. Someone, possibly Stiles (he must at least be charged with responsibility for passing on the fiction in his "History of Ancient Wethersfield 2:646), assumed that this unusual name must have been the surname of the mother.
    It is unfortunate that Stiles failed to consult his Bible concordance. Had he done so, he would have learned that Lt. Smith, a devout man who made a bequest of a Bible in his will to each of his grandchildren gave biblical names to each one of his other sons, - Samuel, Philip and John, - and Chileab was no exception; the original Chileab was the son of King David by
    Abigail (II Samuel, 111;3). According to Rev. William Jenks, "Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible" (1836), Chileab signifies "like his father, or the father's picture." Due to the unusual circumstances of Chileab"s birth, Abigail being the lawful wife of Nabal the Carmelite, we may reasonable ascribe the touching choice of the babe's name to Abigail rather than to David. In any event in the 7 Oct. 1929 issue of "The Boston Evening Transcript," one C.D.A. wrote, in answer to query 8072-15. If Lieutenant Smith had named the child Chedorlaomer, Jaazaniah, Yephibosneth, or Maher-shalal-hash-baz ( all biblical masculine names), there would have been as much ground for assuming the selected name was the family name of Elizabeth as there was that it was Chileab.

    The identity of Elizabeth, wife of Lt. Samuel Smith, has been determined within the bounds of probability acceptable to careful genealogists. As long ago as 14 Aug 1943, the late Dr. Ray G.Hulbert, in his answer to query A-2442-(6) in "The Hartford Times," gave the facts, which have been repeated on a number of occasions, once at least by the present contributor. Nevertheless, to bring all the known facts together, perhaps for the first time the following account is presented to lay the ghost of Elizabeth Chileab.

    The parish registers of St. Margarets's, Whatfield, Co.,Suffolk, England, show the Oct 6, 1624 marriage of Samuel Smyth to Elizabeth Smyth, and the baptism of their son Samuel on Feb 8, 1625 (1625/6?). The young couple next appear at Hadleigh, co. Suffolk, three miles south of Whatfield where, at the church of St. Mary the Virgin, they baptized Elizabeth on Jan 28, 1627 (probably New Style); Mary, Oct. 9, 1628 and Philip, November1632. The Smith, Smyth, Smithe (all interchangeable, of course) family embarked "the last of Aprill, 1634, for New England, in the "Elizabeth," from Ipswich, Mr. Wm. Andrews, "Master" (New England Hist. and Gen. Register, 14:329; Hotten' s "Original Lists," pp. 280, 282; Pope's "Pioneers of Massachusetts"; James William Hook , "Lieut. Samuel Smith (1953), p. 1.The ship's list shows the following ages for the members of the Smith family:"Samuell Smithe,"; 32; "Elizabeth his wife," 32; and children of "Sam. Smith:" Samuel, 9; Elizabeth, 7; Mary, 4; Philip, 1. The ages of the children Samuel, Elizabeth, and Philip exactly correspond with their respective dates of baptism. Mary, however, was 5, not 4. Actually, this record represents a high degree of accuracy. Most ages taken from ships' lists (and from gravestones and census records as well) are questionable unless confirmed by other contemporary records.

    There remains little room for doubt that the baptismal records shown above taken from the parish registers in Whatfield and Hadleigh, are of the children who sailed on the "Elizabeth" from Ipswich only ten miles east of Hadleigh, co. Suffolk and that Elizabeth, wife of Lt.Samuel Smith, was a Smith before her marriage.
  2. [S1316] More Freemen, page 25 -.
  3. [S1317] James William Hook, Lieut. Samuel Smith His Children and One Line of Descent

    , pages 1-13.
  4. [S2605] Myrtle Strvens Hyde, The Englaish Ancestry of Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, whose wife was Elizabeth [Smith] Smith.
  5. [S2606] Suffolk, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 - Ancestry: Samuel Smith Son of John Bap. 6 September 1601.
  6. [S1315] The Founder's of New England, page 329 - Ipswich - a note of the manes and ages of all the passengers which tooke shipping in the Elizabeth of Ipswich, Mr. Willis Andrews bound for New England the last day of April 1634. . . . Samuel Smith age 32,, Elizabeth Smith age 32 . . .
  7. [S1317] James William Hook, Lieut. Samuel Smith His Children and One Line of Descent

    , pages 1.
  8. [S457] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 Volume I -III, Samuel Smith.
  9. [S1752] The Great Migration: Passengers of the Elizabeth, 1634 & 1635: Left Ipswich 10 April 1634, Master William Andrews; arrived at Massachusetts Bay 6 months later; passengers - Samuel Smith aged - www.geni.com/projects/Great-Migration-Passengers-of -the-Elizabeth-1634-1635/4789.
  10. [S1752] The Great Migration: Passengers of the Elizabeth, 1634 & 1635: Left Ipswich 10 April 1634, William Andrews, master; arrived at Massachusetts Bay some six months later - passengers: Samuel Smith aged 32 years, his wife Elizabeth aged 32 years, Samuel aged 9 years, Elizabeth aged 7 years, Mary aged 4 years, & Philip aged 1 year. They were bound for Watertown, Wethersfield, Connecticut. - www.geni.com/projects/Great-Migration-Passengers-of -the-Elizabeth-1634-1635/4789.
  11. [S2212] Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991
    : Hampshire - Probate Records, Vol 1-4, 1660-1780.
  12. [S1317] James William Hook, Lieut. Samuel Smith His Children and One Line of Descent

    , page 12.