Lieutenant Samuel Smith1,2,3

M, b. 6 October 1602, d. 16 January 1681
FatherSamuel Smith
MotherBarbary Mumforde b. c 1582
     Samuel was born on Sunday, 6 October 1602 in Ipswich in the parish of St. Nicholas, County Suffolk, England. Samuel married Elizabeth Smythe on 6 October 1624 in Whatfield, County Suffolk, England, at St. Margaret's Chrch. On 10 April 1634, Samuel and his wife, 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., immigrated aboard the ship "Elizabeth" left from Ipswich.4,5,6,7,8 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 of 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 departed this life on Thursday, 16 January 1681 in Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The inventory of Samuel's estate was taken on Tuesday, 17 June 1681.9

Family

Elizabeth Smythe b. 1602, d. 16 Mar 1685/86
Children

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. [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 . . .
  5. [S1317] James William Hook, Lieut. Samuel Smith His Children and One Line of Descent

    , pages 1.
  6. [S457] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Samuel Smith.
  7. [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.
  8. [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.
  9. [S1317] James William Hook, Lieut. Samuel Smith His Children and One Line of Descent

    , page 12.