Born about in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England
Ancestors 
Son of George Smith
and Alice (Rickard) Smith
Brother of
Francis Smyth and Richard Smyth
[spouse(s) unknown]
Died
at about age 52
in London, England
Profile last modified
| Created 6 Jul 2013
This page has been accessed 26,369 times.
| John (Smyth) Smith resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies |
Contents |
Biography
John (Smyth) Smith is Notable.
John (Smyth) Smith is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society
Adventurer, explorer and author.
Birth and Parents
John Smith[1] was the son of George Smith and his wife Alice. Son of George Smith and Alice was born either 1579 or 1580..[2][3][4][5]
John Smith was the son of George Smith and Alice Rickard. [6]
He was baptized at St. Helens Church 9 Jan 1580. [6]
John, the son of George Smith, was baptized the 6th of January, 1579. (From the Parish Register of Willoughby.)
Youth
John Smith's family were poor tenants who lived on land owned by Peregrine Bertie, the 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby. [6]
A note says, "Smith says 'he was bout thirteen years of age' when his parents died. In March 1596, he was 17." This note questions the date of father George's will.
7th year of the Reign of Lord Charles, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland.
After Smith's father died his mother remarried and Peregrine Bertie looked after young Smith. Bertie later hired him as an attendant (clerk) to Bertie on a trip to France. Being bored after a year or so Smith was sent back to Lincolnshire. Being adventurous, Smith then spent several years traveling and engaging in various battles. [6]
He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Bathory, Prince of Transylvania and his friend Mózes Székely. [7]
Jamestown, Virginia
John (Smyth) Smith was a Jamestown colonist.
John Smith went to Jamestown, VA in June 1607 on the Susan Constant.[8][6]
He was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America. [7]
He was a leader of the Virginia Colony (based at Jamestown) between September 1608 and August 1609,[9] and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. He was the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area and New England. [7]
When Jamestown was England’s first permanent settlement in the New World, Smith trained the settlers to farm and work, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated "he who shall not work, shall not eat." His courage and tenacity overcame many adverse situations in a new land. This strength of character and determination overcame problems presented from the hostile Indians, the wilderness and the troublesome and uncooperative English settlers. Harsh weather, lack of water, living in a swampy wilderness, English unwillingness to work, and attacks from the Powhatan nation almost destroyed the colony. [7]
England
He returned to England 4 Oct 1609. [6]
New England
He spent some time in New England[6]
John Smith, (c. January 1580 – 21 June 1631) Admiral of New England was an English soldier, explorer, and author. [7]
- "Captaine John Smith, sometime Governour of Virginia, and Admirall of New England." He explored from Penobscot to Cape Cod in 1614.
Author
Smith's books and maps are considered extremely important in encouraging and supporting English colonization of the New World. He gave the name New England to that region and encouraged people to migrate by noting, "Here every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land... If he have nothing but his hands, he may...by industrie quickly grow rich." He was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America. [7]
Death
He returned to London, where he died in 1631.[6] He was buried in the St. Seplcher without Newgate Churchyard.
In his will, Capt. John gives "my sister Smith the widowe of my brother the some of tenn pounds. To my cosen Steven Smith and his sister the some of sixe pounds. . . "
Research Notes
No Marriage or Children
- There is no record of John Smith having ever been married nor is there record of any children[10].
- He never married. "Captain John Smith described Pocahontas as being 11 years old when she saved him. He was hurt in an accident 1 and 1/2 years later and had to leave to go home.
Captain John Smith never married Pocahontas. Pocahontas married Master John Rolfe in 1614..
When Pocahontas was 21-22 years old, and in London, married with a 3 year old son (Thomas), she saw Captain John Smith and said to him, in response to him calling her Princess, "you shall call me child an I shall call you father." Loved her as a friend
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-158788
Note: Peregrine Smith was disconnected as a child of Capt. John for lack of documentation. This relationship is an unsupported legend.
Claimed Relations
"Descended from the ancient Smiths of Crudly [Cuerdley] in Lancashire."
- The following seems unlikely because Captain John Smith had only one known brother named Francis. Still, in the interest of exploring all possibilities, here is an entry I found:
"Seeing that some of his family took more interest in genealogy and family records than he thought becoming in a citizen of the young republic, he made a bonfire of all the papers relating to his ancestors and family history. It is necessarily, therefore, rather a tradition than a fact recorded in family history, that John Smith of Perton was the son of Thomas Smith, the brother of the Captain John Smith so famous in colonial history. The Smiths of this line adopted Captain John Smith's coat of arms, the three Turks' heads, and now hold it.
Sources
- ↑ Smith, Capt. John - A7904; deid 21 June 1631 England; 1607-08 (President of Council). accessed 26 October 2021
- ↑ Dictionary of American biography by American Council of Learned Societies, Published 1943. Vol 17 page 294
- ↑ https://www.biography.com/political-figure/john-smith
- ↑ https://www.historyisfun.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/John-Smith-11-07-Bio.pdf
- ↑ https://historicjamestowne.org/history/pocahontas/john-smith/
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Teri Hiatt. Genealogy.com Forum. Re: John Smith and Pocahontas, July 13, 2012, reply to Larry Anderson note of the same date. Hiatt's sources: (1) butleigh. org, under Butleigh People for Hiett, Smith; (2) en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bertie,_Richard_(DNB00) Info on Richard Bertie; (3) zipworld.com.au/~nbdds/home/smythwinchester.htm Info on Peregrine Bertie, John Smith,and Pocahontas (4) rotherhamweb.co.uk/h/jhewett.htm About Dr. John Hewitt. (5) archive.org/stream/captainjohnsmith00braduoft/captainjohnsmith00braduoft_d Full Text of Capt. John Smith (6) womenshistory.about.com/od/mythsofwomenshistory/a/pocahontas.htm About Pocahontas; (7) encyclopediavirginia.org/Smith_John_bap_1580-1631 John Smith; (8) cappyzeb.freeyellow.com/ancestors/pages/hiatt/jspoc/smith-poc.htm John Smith, Pocahontas; (9) 1609chronology.blogspot.co/2009/04/god-wants-you-to-colonize-virginia.html (10) teenslibrarypoint.org/queene_of_pomonkey Cockacoeske and John West (11) Book"Berk's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage" 107th ed. 3 vol. Wilmington,Del 2003. Accessed 5 March 2020. jhd
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Wikipedia: John_Smith_(explorer).
- ↑ https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/jamestown.htm
- ↑ New River Notes, Colonial Virginia Register, Capt. John Smith
- ↑ Questions about John Smith
- Original M.I, said to be given in Stow's Survey of London (1633), reprinted in The Virginia Historical Register, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan 1848), p. 19.
Photographed Primary Sources
England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 on ancestry.com Image Piece 034: John Smith (1631)
See also
- Find-A-Grave Virtual Cemetery memorial #1936 in Church of the Holy Sepulchre, London, England. The Statue of Captain John Smith is in the side yard of St Mary le Bow 1/2 mile away.
- "Captain Smith's Monument", in The Virginia Historical Register, Vol. 1 (1848), no. 1, p. 19.
- John Smith on Wikipedia
- The Lives of William Smyth Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton Knight by Ralph Churton, 1800, page 5 says, "Captain John Smyth, born in the county of Chester, and descended from the Smyths of Cuerdley, but whether through the family of Oldhough, or of Hatherton, is not known, was distinguished by his achievements in America and in Europe."
- Captain John Smith of Willoughby edited by Edward Arber, 1895
- Famous Americans website
- The true story of Captain John Smith by Woods, Katherine Pearson, 1853-1923
- Wikipedia article on Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower (involved with John Smith at Jamestown)
- Three Worlds of Captain John Smith Barbour, Philip (1964)
- Narratives of early Virginia, 1606-1625 Edited by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL.D. (1907, 1959)
- Captain John Smith Kupperman, Karen Ordahl (1988, 2012)
- Captain John Smith: His Life & Legend Smith, William Bradford (1953)
- THE COMPLETE WORKS OF Captain John Smith (1580 -- 1631) in Three Volumes Edited by Philip L. Barbour UNC Press (1986)
- American Genesis: Captain John Smith and the Founding of Virginia' Vaughan, Alden T. (1975)
- Smith, John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and The Summer Isles (J. MacLehose, Glasgow, 1907)
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com
DNA
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Images: 7
- ISO parents of Elizabeth Smyth b.c.1760, lived in County Meath, IRE? Feb 7, 2018.
- Is Peregrine Smith the son of John Smith? Jan 15, 2018.
Rejected matches › John Smith (1581-)
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Categories: Governor's Council, Virginia Colony | Ancient Planters of Virginia | Virginia Colonists | British Army Officers | Colonial Governors of Virginia | Explorers | Authors | Anglo-Powhatan Wars | American Heroes | Smith Name Study | Jamestown, Virginia Colony | Susan Constant, sailed Dec 1606 | Featured Connections Archive 2023 | Jamestown Colonists | England, Notables | Notables | Jamestowne Society Qualifying Ancestors
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S GLASS HOUSE If you visit Jamestown, Virginia, you may tour an old Glass House. It was originally built in 1608 by Captain John Smith (of Pocohontas fame) to manufacture glass panes for the windows of the Jamestown colonists. This was the first factory ever built in America and in 2003 was rebuilt for the tourists. William Broadribb, purchased the land it was built on in 1676 and the following is taken from his will. Will of William Broadribb, made 3 May 1703 and proved 7 June 1703*: Item. I do appoint, Impower & desire my three Loveing friends, Mr. Wm Drumond, Captn George Marable & Mr. Benj. Eggleston, or either two of them, with my Loveing wife, trustees to sell & dispose of my Land & plantacon whereon Emanuell Dees now liveth, & the produce of it I bequeath Equally between my Son Thomas Broadribb & my two daughters to-wit Susan & Lydia, leting the sd Dees Continue his time on it as by Indenture of Lease may appear. The land referred to in this provision of Broadribb's will was the 24 acres at the Glass House. It was from the Glass House that Nathaniel Bacon laid siege to Jamestown before burning it to the ground on 19 September 1676; and it was on the beach before the Glass House that Capt. William Hartwell was shot in the leg during the efforts to raise the siege. (Letter from Nathaniel Bacon to Capt. William Cookson and Capt. Edward Skewon, 17 September 1676, in "Narrative of Bacon's Rebellion (Winder Papers, Virginia State Library)," 4 VMHB 117, 146.) After the rebellion, it was to the Glass House that Col. James Crews, Capt. William Cookson and Capt. John Digby were taken to be hung by the order of Gov. Sir William Berkeley because of their role in the rebellion and their participation in the siege. (Tyler, The Cradle of the Republic (Richmond 1906), p. 153-157.) William Broadribb had several sons and daughters, one of whom was Benjamin Broadribb, whose daughter Priscilla Broadribb became the wife of Billison Snipes of Surry County, VA. The Snipes and Broadribb families were known to have been close because Benjamin Broadribb's will was witnessed by Samuel Snipes, Thomas Gray, and John Powell, in Surry Co., VA, on 3 May 1751. The relationship between Samuel Snipes and Billison remains a mystery.
Colony, 1703]
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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smyth-1708
An incident hurried his departure. On his way down the James a bag of gunpowder exploded in his boat, "tearing the flesh from his body and thighs in a most pitiful manner." The pain so "tormented" him that he leaped overboard, and came near drowning. His men dragged him back, and in this state he reached Jamestown, where he was taken to a bed in the fort, "near bereft of his senses by reason of his torment."
Cooke, J. E. (1884). Virginia: A history of the people. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. [1] p.66 et seq