Jordan Smythe (abt. 1095 - abt. 1135)

Born about 1095 in Carrington, Cheshire, England

Descendants

Died about 1135 at about age 40 in Carrington, Cheshire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Andrew Lancaster [send private message]

Biography

Note of caution

This person probably did not exist.

This profile is currently connected to what the great genealogist J H Round called the "The Carington Imposture", a famous genealogical myth connecting modern Smith families to the medieval Caringtons. At least some of the people in that pedigree never existed and others are represented inaccurately. Further information:

• The Carrington Imposture
• Round, John Horace, 1910. Peerage and Pedigree: Studies in Peerage Law and Family History, volume II, Pages 134-258. Reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970. The Great Carrington Imposture] Pages 134-258. Available on Hathitrust, and Familysearch.

Jordan first appears in the myth's most complex 19th-century version with the publication of an enormous work compiled by Walter Copinger in 1907.

• Walter Copinger, "History and records of the Smith-Carington family" Available online here. Use with caution!!

Copinger's one paragraph summary on Jordan says that he was "one of the Knights of Ranulph de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, and was present at the battle of Lincoln, the 2nd February 1141, when King Stephen was taken prisoner". The only citation he gives is a short general description of the battle from Henry of Huntingdon's chronicle.^[1]

Unfortunately when Copinger does this type of unconvincing citation about events in general, it seems to mean the genealogical information can not be trusted!

Ormerod and Halesby do not seem to have any knowledge of this person.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ The chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon. p.279.
2. ↑ Ormerod and Helsby, History of Cheshire, vol.1, p.544.