Samuel Smith (bef. 1601 - bef. 1681)

Born before 6 Sep 1601 in Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Smyth) Smith — married 6 Oct 1624 in Whatfield, Suffolk, England

Descendants

Died before 17 Jan 1681 at about age 79 in Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Samuel Smith migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 1, p. 396) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

He sailed from England on the ship "Elizabeth" with his wife Elizabeth, and landed in Boston with their four Children, Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary, and Philip in 1634. In 1636, they moved to Connecticut, and he was one of the Founders of Wethersfield. In 1659, they moved to Massachusetts and he was one of the founders of Hadley.

Birth

Samuel Smith, the son of John Smith and Mary (Gardiner) Smith was baptised 6 September 1601 in Burstall, Suffolk, England.^[1][2]

Marriage and Children

Samuel married Elizabeth (Smyth) Smith (bef.1599-1686) (erroneously referred to in some early genealogies as Elizabeth Chileab) in St. Margaret's Parish, Whatfield, Suffolk, England, 6 October 1624^[3][4] and they had the following children: ^[5]

1. Samuel Smith (bef.1625-1665) bp. 6 Oct 1625 Whatfield, Suffolk; m. Rebecca, d/o Henry Smith
2. Elizabeth (Smith) Gull (bef.1627-1711) bp. Hadleigh, Suffolk 28 Jan 1626/7; m. Nathaniel Foote
3. Mary (Smith) Graves (bef.1628-abt.1668) bp. Hadleigh, 19 Oct 1628; m. John Graves
4. Philip Smith (bef.1630-bef.1631) bp. Hadleigh 1 Au 1630; bur. there 16 Oct 1631
5. Philip Smith (bef.1632-1685) bp. Hadleigh 25 Nov 1632; m. Rebecca Foote
6. Chileab Smith (abt.1635-1731) b. ~1636; m. Hannah Hitchcock
7. Joseph Smith (1640-1690) b. ~1638; m. "Mary Pattrick" d/o William Partridge.

Note: an additional daughter, Margaret (Smith) Watson (1620-1683), has been removed as there is no reliable source to connect to these parents. If she was born in 1620, as reported, she was born before their marriage. She also was not listed with the supposed siblings on the ship list (below).

Immigration

The family left England in 1634 aboard the ship Elizabeth with Samuel and Elizabeth listing their ages as 32; their four children were listed with the following ages (spelling retained):^[6]

Samuell Smith aged 9

Mary Smith aged 4

Eliz: Smith aged 7

Phillip Smith aged 1

In Wethersfield, Connecticut

Samuel was admitted as a freeman 3 Sep. 1634.^[7]

Samuel was part owner of the ship Tryall which was built by Thomas Deming and first sailed in 1649 under Captain Larrabee.^[8][9][10]

In Hadley, Massachusetts

The following information and excerpts concerning the life of Samuel Smith come from the book, History of Hadley: Including the Early History of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts:^[11]

• "The Agreement or Engagement of those who intended to remove from Connecticut to Massachusetts, is dated at Hartford, April 18, 1659, and is recorded on the first book of Hadley records....Samuel Smith" page 11
• "The plantation being begun by them...did upon the ninth of November, (1659) at Hartford, and about the said time at Wethersfield, and at the said plantation, chose by vote...Samuel Smith...to order all public occasions, that concern the good of that plantation, for the year ensuing." page 12
• On 8 Oct. 1660 at a town meeting held at Andrew Warner's house voted to settle on the west side of the river and be "inhbiting there in their houses of their own by Michaelmas next [29 Sep. 1661]." pages 14-15
• "Jurors from the New Town attended Court for the first time, March, 1661, viz...Samuel Smith" page 16
• On 14 Dec. 1660 Samuel was chosen as one of the first five selectmen of Hadley. page 69
• Recordings of the General Court, May 22, 1661: New town is given the name, "Hadley" with Samuell [sic] Smith, Andrew Bacon and William Westwood, appointed as the Commissioners of the town.page 17
• To secure the desired allotment of lands for the town of Hadley, "[i]n April 1664, Lieut. Samuel Smith was empowered by the town to purchase" Mr. Simon Bradstreet's farm, but he would not sell. So in May 1664 Smith petitioned the General Court for a 1000 acre gift to the town of Hadley, which was granted. page 21
• "Town measurers were first chosen in Hadley, Dec. 31, 1660, and were Samuel Smith and Peter Tilton." page 32
• Lieut. Samuel Smith was chosen as one of three by William Goodwin to be a trustee for the land Edward Hopkins had given for the building of the grammar school ("Hopkins School"). page 49
• "In 1671, Lieut. Samuel Smith was the next retailer in Hadley." page 63
• In March 1663 Samuel Smith was chosen as lieutenant in the Hadley Militia and "[i]n May, 1678, Lt. Smith requested to be freed from military trust, being, as he said, 'near eighty years of age.' He was discharged." Overall, he served as Lieutenant for Hadley, MA, from 1663-1678 pages 218-19

Death and Burial

It is commonly believed that Samuel died in Hadley Massachusetts in December of 1680, however it was definitely sometime after he wrote his will on 23 June 1680 and before it was proved on 17 January 1681.^[12] He is buried in the Old Hadley Burying Ground but no headstone exists for him.

DNA

Immigrant Ancestor of yDNA group NE01 Lt. Samuel Smith-1852 (c1601 ENG-1681 MA) m Elizabeth Smyth-346. See SmithConnections Northeastern DNA Project.^[13]

Sources

1. ↑ Myrtle Stevens Hyde, "The English Ancestry of Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts ...," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 174 (2020):40-51 (particularly 43) digital images by subscription, AmericanAncestors.
2. ↑ George Minns, transcriber, "Registers of Burstall, Suffolk, 1540-1887," (Genealogical Society of Utah, 1941) (Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1970) Film #496781, DGS 007905885, image 60 of 781, digital images available by subscription at FamilySearch.org.
3. ↑ Stephany Smith "Generation One: Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Smith" Moving West: Thirteen Generations of a Smith Family; The Ancestors and Descendents of Albert Burton Smith citing Northeastern Smiths DNA Project; full sized image.
4. ↑ Paul W. Prindle "The Wife of Lt. Samuel Smith of Wethersfield" (New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-), 31:202-203, digital image by subscription at The American Genealogist.
5. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S (2009), 396-402 (Samuel Smith), in particular, 400-401; digital images by subscription, AmericanAncestors.
6. ↑ John Camden Hotten, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality... (London: John Camden Hotten, 1874), digital images at InternetArchive.org, listing Samuel and Elizabeth on p. 280 and lists Samuel and his children on p. 282.
7. ↑ Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, Records of the governor and company of the Massachusetts bay in New England., 1:369 (Boston: W. White, 1853) gital image available at Archive.org.
8. ↑ Nathaniel Goodwin, The Foote Family: of the Descendants of Nathaniel Foote..., 276 (Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849), citing Colony Records, 1:207, digital image available at Archive.org. "At a Court at Hartford, this 7th day of November 1649. This Courte [sic] grants Samue^l Smith and the rest of the owners of the ship at Wethersfield...".
9. ↑ Roger M. Griswold, "First Sailing Vessels and Merchant-Mariners On the Connecticut River," The Connecticut Magazine (Hartford, 1906), 463, digital image available at Archive.org.
10. ↑ David Rhinelander, "Nautical History of Connecticut River, Glastonbury Entwined." The Hartford Courant, 17 Jul. 1998, [www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1998-07-17-9807210658-story.html www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1998-07-17-9807210658-story.html].
11. ↑ Sylvester Judd History of Hadley: Including the Early History of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts (Springfield, Massachusetts: H. R. Huntting & Co., 1905), digital images available for Archive.org.
12. ↑ Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, Probate Records, 1660-1916, image 147 of 689, digital image by subscription at Ancestry.com.
13. ↑ SmithConnections Northeastern DNA Project, haplogroup Rb1 NE01 Lt. Samuel Smith.

See also:

• Flagon and Trencher ancestor
• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 6 (R-S):396, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009, digital images by subscription at AmericanAncestors.org.
• Hook, James William, comp., Lieut. Samuel Smith, His Children and One Line of Descendants and Related Families (1953), digital images of entire book available by subscription at FamilySearch.org
• Pope, Charles Henry, The pioneers of Massachusetts, a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents (Boston: C.H. Pope, 1900) 423, digital image available at Archive.org
• Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, Originally Published Boston, 1860-1862, Corrected electronic version copyright Robert Kraft (1994); 4:131, available at USGenNet.
• Stiles, Henry R., "Samuel Smith" entry, The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1:300, digital image available at Archive.org. [does not contain sources]
• Foote, Abram William, Foote Family: comprising the genealogy and history of Nathaniel Foote, of Wethersfield, Conn., and his descendants; also a partial record of descendants of Pasco Foote of Salem, Mass., Richard Foote of Stafford County, Va., and John Foote of New York City] (Rutland, VT: Marble City Press, 1907-1932) digital images available at Archive.org.
• Connecticut Soldiers in the Pequot War of 1637, by Shepard, James, Publication date 1913 via Archive.org [1], Page 27. Many of the residences match this persona. One or two ambiguities about identity.