Thomas Smith (bef. 1709)

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in USA [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jeffrey Jones [send private message]

Biography

Photo: #M4806. File . @M5062@.

External Files

• File M4806 File: C:\Users\Owner\Personal\Family Tree Maker\Jones Family Tree Media\Smith Family Crest.jpg Format: jpg. Smith Family Crest. Christopher’s was described as “Azure a Chevron between three acorns slipped and leaved”. Azure or blue in color matches Sir Thomas’, his father. The single chevron matches as well. It was the Acorns the bothered me. Sir Thomas had three Lions as shown above. The Acorns denote antiquity and strength; they hold a high significance as a Scandinavian and a Celtic symbol for life, fertility, and immortality. While attempting to research this in heraldry, I found that the Smith’s of America (which means our family to put it short) replaced the acorns with three yellow lozenges (Constancy). I want to believe the change was to help better distinguish them selves from the others in the world, such as those from Ireland, South Africa, and back in England. But it may also be that Christopher, however tied to the merchant way of life, chose to step back from the lime light and chose a quieter, more religious life. This trait may have carried on to his children, namely Christopher II as he spent many years involved with the church as we will find out. Originally all the Smyth Arms included what we would call a Unicorn symbol; which suggests that each of the sets of Smyths in the area may have similar lineage in earlier times, but I don’t know. We discussed this symbol briefly in the History of the Smith Name. The Unicorn seems to have been replaced with the Lions back before the early 1500s. But our Smiths changed them again to acorns as we see on Christopher’s. There is much to be learned here. Christopher could have separated from his father [either over some argument or by arrangement of marriage perhaps], changed the spelling of his name as well as the symbols on his crest, yet kept the arms still a claim to his father which still brought respect. This hypothesis would account for the records found of Sir Thomas’ children recording the three boys but only naming two. Remember this is just an assumption. There is just too much that matches for them not to connect, yet I can not explain the differences. With the connections built up over the years, it appears that each generation began to move up due to marriages within “good” families. It would be fair to assume then that many marriages were arranged (remember this is still the 1600s – arranged marriages were still recorded in the early 20th century). We will see such marriages in our ancestry and see how wise our ancestors were. Christopher married Ms. Elizabeth Townley (b. abt. 1599 in Lancashire) on 3 May 1624 in Lancashire, England. Elizabeth was the daughter of Lawrence Townley IV and Jennet Halstead, a well to do family. I had done a bit or research into her family because her father was an “IV”. I found nothing much but a long line of Lawrence Townley’s of which Elizabeth carried on with her children. What I did find out was that the Townleys were based in Lancashire but had many branches of the family spread across England. One such branch was at Stone Edge, which in Wiltshire. Guess what? This is the same place our Smiths were. Now I followed Lawrence Townley’s line a bit further and discovered many interesting things (Queens, Presidents, Explorers, Generals), but that will have to wait till we get to the Smith Branches Section.
• External File: M4806 File: C:\Users\Owner\Personal\Family Tree Maker\Jones Family Tree Media\Smith Family Crest.jpg Format: jpg Smith Family Crest Christopher’s was described as “Azure a Chevron between three acorns slipped and leaved”. Azure or blue in color matches Sir Thomas’, his father. The single chevron matches as well. It was the Acorns the bothered me. Sir Thomas had three Lions as shown above. The Acorns denote antiquity and strength; they hold a high significance as a Scandinavian and a Celtic symbol for life, fertility, and immortality. While attempting to research this in heraldry, I found that the Smith’s of America (which means our family to put it short) replaced the acorns with three yellow lozenges (Constancy). I want to believe the change was to help better distinguish them selves from the others in the world, such as those from Ireland, South Africa, and back in England. But it may also be that Christopher, however tied to the merchant way of life, chose to step back from the lime light and chose a quieter, more religious life. This trait may have carried on to his children, namely Christopher II as he spent many years involved with the church as we will find out. Originally all the Smyth Arms included what we would call a Unicorn symbol; which suggests that each of the sets of Smyths in the area may have similar lineage in earlier times, but I don’t know. We discussed this symbol briefly in the History of the Smith Name. The Unicorn seems to have been replaced with the Lions back before the early 1500s. But our Smiths changed them again to acorns as we see on Christopher’s. There is much to be learned here. Christopher could have separated from his father [either over some argument or by arrangement of marriage perhaps], changed the spelling of his name as well as the symbols on his crest, yet kept the arms still a claim to his father which still brought respect. This hypothesis would account for the records found of Sir Thomas’ children recording the three boys but only naming two. Remember this is just an assumption. There is just too much that matches for them not to connect, yet I can not explain the differences. With the connections built up over the years, it appears that each generation began to move up due to marriages within “good” families. It would be fair to assume then that many marriages were arranged (remember this is still the 1600s – arranged marriages were still recorded in the early 20th century). We will see such marriages in our ancestry and see how wise our ancestors were. Christopher married Ms. Elizabeth Townley (b. abt. 1599 in Lancashire) on 3 May 1624 in Lancashire, England. Elizabeth was the daughter of Lawrence Townley IV and Jennet Halstead, a well to do family. I had done a bit or research into her family because her father was an “IV”. I found nothing much but a long line of Lawrence Townley’s of which Elizabeth carried on with her children. What I did find out was that the Townleys were based in Lancashire but had many branches of the family spread across England. One such branch was at Stone Edge, which in Wiltshire. Guess what? This is the same place our Smiths were. Now I followed Lawrence Townley’s line a bit further and discovered many interesting things (Queens, Presidents, Explorers, Generals), but that will have to wait till we get to the Smith Branches Section.
• File M5062 File: C:\Users\Owner\Personal\Family Tree Maker\Jones Family Tree Media\Seventeenth Century Isle of Whight County Virginia.pdf Format: jpg. Seventeenth Century Isle of Whight County Virginia. The Bennett Smith Bio describes our Smith lineage as coming from the Surrey County area of colonial Virginia this article describes a line of Smiths with similar names as our Thomas/John and Bennett Smith.

Sources

• The information is speculative based on land transactions.