David Smith (abt. 1735 - abt. 1761)

Ancestors

Died about 1761 at about age 26 in Sussex, Delaware

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Biography

David was born about 1735. He was the son of John Smith and Elizabeth Nutter. He passed away some time after 1759.

In 1740, David's uncle John Nutter left a bequest to David Smith, son of my sister Betty.^[1]

In 1753, David's grandfather David Smith left property to David and his brother John Smith.^[2]

In 1758, David was Co-Executor of his father's will, and received bequests in that will. ^[3] ""Item. I give and bequeath unto my son David Smith forty five acres of land which is part of that land I bought of John Daniel and Benjamin Brinklow in Slaughter Neck…joining upon Avery Draper’s land and Laben(?) Carpenters, to him and his heirs and assigns—."

His mother died about six months after his father. From the language of his mother's will, David was in charge of some of his younger siblings after her death and responsible for their schooling.^[4]. "To son David Smith, the use of [enslaved people] Sampson, Absolom and Jean [Jane] for eight years to bring up my three youngest children and to give them two years schooling

Betty Smith made a specific bequest of 100 acres to her other three sons and David was to receive the rest of her lands and marsh. If he died without children, the property was to pass to son Thomas Smith.

David died intestate about 1761, leaving a widow named Elizabeth or Betty. She subsequently married William Laws, who submitted an accounting for the estate of David's father John Smith, Senior.

Property

From the September 1761 Orphans court minutes on dividing the land:

report from freeholders appointed to divide property of David Smith and John Smith the younger, deceased, pursuant to petition from Mark Davis who intermarried with a daughter of John Smith the Elder.

”the widow of David Smith afores’d” should have the front room and the three rooms upstairs of the dwelling house which the said David Smith died possessed of and the old kitchen & smokehouse, also the house allotted and laid – to the said widow the moiety or half part of the lands of the sd. David during her Natural Life” or widowhood. “The upper part of the cleared land adjoining to the said dwelling house, also the southernmost pasrt of the pasture containing one hundred & thirty acres. Likewise thirtysix acres in the gret marsh --?—four acres of woodland at the head of the cleared land and twenty five acres being part of the whole.”

“As to the other moiety of David Smith’s lands & marsh and the lands of the said John Smith the younger, we are of opinion and do return that the same will not bear dividing among the several heirs without prejudicing and spoiling the whole.”

Notes

Related record?

• Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original source: Delaware, Land Records, 1677–1947. Recorder of Deeds, Sussex County, RG 4555, Subgroup 000, Series 030. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware.

Sussex county: Roll 006: Image 47 [1]

Purchaser: Thomas Allcock Fowler of Slaughter Neck and Cedar Creek hundred

Seller: John Smith and Sophia Smith his wife of Slaughter Neck and Cedar Creek hundred

Date: 5 August 1784

Price £134.s.10 ; Property: tract in Cedar Creek hundred “at the head of Slaughter Neck and on both sides of the country Road”

being part of the lands willed by David Smith Esquire bearing date the 26 April 1753 to his two grandsons John and David Smith, and after John and David arrived at the age of twenty one years divided the land

7 Sept 1787: David Smith deceased, [2], minor daughter Sally, wife Eliz. remarried ???

Sources

1. ↑ will of John Nutter in Delaware Wills & Probate Records
2. ↑ Delaware Land Records, 1784 sale by John & Sophia Smith.
3. ↑ will of John Smith in Delaware Wills & Probate Records
4. ↑ will of Betty Smith in Delaware Wills & Probate Records

• Delaware, Wills and Probate Records, General Index, 1676-1971: Sussex: Wills, book A, 1682-1781 image 463-464, Ancestry.com [3] accessed 26 Aug 2019.

Will of John Nutter, yeoman

proved 28 May 1740

Heirs: Sister Betty Smith, her son David Smith; cousin Mary Nutter, daughter of Christopher Nutter; cousin Mary Smith daughter of my sister Betty; Isaac Wattson in recompense for the trouble he had with my brother Thomas Nutter in his -?- Sickness; Bethuel Wattson; uncle ChristopherNutter Nutter; ; brother-in-law John Smith

Executor: brother-in-law John Smith

Note: Image is much later than 18th century, hard to read.

• Delaware, Wills and Probate Records, 1676-1971: Sussex: Wills, books B-D, 1751-1794: images 105-106, Ancestry.com [4] accessed 26 Aug 2019.

Will of John Smith

Signed: 5 March ??; Proved: 12 December 1758

Heirs: wife, Betty Smith; sons David Smith, Nutter Smith, Thomas Smith, John Smith; daughters Mary the wife of Mark Davis, Comfort Smith, Mager Smith, and Betty Smith

Executors wife Betty Smith and son David Smith

• Delaware, Wills and Probate Records, 1676-1971: Sussex: Wills, books B-D, 1751-1794: images 102-103, Ancestry.com [5] accessed 26 Aug 2019.

Will of Betty Smith, widow

Signed: 28 April 1759; Proved: 25 June 1759

Heirs: sons Nutter Smith, John Smith, Thomas Smith, David Smith; daughters Comfort Smith, Betsey Smith, Major (Margery) Smith, Mary Davis; grandson John Hickman

Executor: son-in-law William Hickman

*Sussex, Delaware Orphan’s Court dockets and minute dockets, 1728-1802. Image: 195. Images available at FamilySearch.org [6]

23 May 1761

”Petition of Mark Davis who was intermarried with one of the daughters of John Smith,” setting out that two of John Smith’s sons, David and John Smith (Jr.), died intestate. Requests division of their share of John Smith Sr.’s estate.

• Sussex, Delaware Orphan’s Court dockets and minute dockets, 1728-1802. Image: 197. Images available at FamilySearch.org [7]

1 Sept 1761

report from freeholders appointed to divide property of David Smith and John Smith the younger, deceased, pursuant to petition from Mark Davis who intermarried with a daughter of John Smith the Elder.

”the widow of David Smith afores’d” should have the front room and the three rooms upstairs of the dwelling house which the said David Smith died possessed of and the old kitchen & smokehouse, also the house allotted and laid – to the said widow the moiety or half part of the lands of the sd. David during her Natural Life” or widowhood. “The upper part of the cleared land adjoining to the said dwelling house, also the southernmost pasrt of the pasture containing one hundred & thirty acres. Likewise thirtysix acres in the gret marsh --?—four acres of woodland at the head of the cleared land and twenty five acres being part of the whole.”

“As to the other moiety of David Smith’s lands & marsh and the lands of the said John Smith the younger, we are of opinion and do return that the same will not bear dividing among the several heirs without prejudicing and spoiling the whole.”

• Sussex, Delaware Orphan’s Court dockets and minute dockets, 1728-1802. Image: 206. Images available at FamilySearch.org [8]

27 March 1762

”Account of Will’m Laws & Betty his wife, Administ’x of David Smith Late Dec’d who was surviving Execut’ of John Smith late of sd. County deceased.” Submit accounting for estate of John Smith, Senior.

Shares calculated for “7 children and the widow … John and Margaret being dead their two shares being in six shares among the surviving brothers and sisters”

• Sussex, Delaware Orphan’s Court dockets and minute dockets, 1728-1802. Image: 229. Images available at FamilySearch.org [9]

7 Sept 1762

The account of William Laws & Betty his wife, administ’ of David Smith the younger deceased. Net £69.8.6

• Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947: Sussex: Roll 001, Ancestry.com. Original source: Delaware, Land Records, Record of Deeds, Sussex County, RG 4555, Subgroup 000, Series 030. Delaware Public Archives, Dover , DE. Image 72 [10].

Sussex Court, sitting March 1697/98

Capt. Luke Watson acknowledged declared and delivered in Open Court unto his youngest son Isaac Watson a deed of gift for Two Hundred Acres of Land scituate lying and being at Prime Hook in this county bearing date the 6th of Decem’r 1697.

Runk, J.M. & Co., Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, (two volumes) publ 1899, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Copy at allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Digital copy available at archive.org

Entry for Henry G.M. Kollock, M.D. in Vol I, page 657, Image 1230 , [11] accessed 30 Oct 2019.

• Sussex, Delaware Orphan’s Court dockets and minute dockets, 1728-1802. Image: 265. Images available at FamilySearch.org [12]

26 Feb 1767

Estate of JOHN SMITH, of Cedar Creek Hundred

Petition from Dorman Lofland, husband of Comfort Smith, daughter of John Smith. Regarding estate left by John Smith to his three sons: David Smith, John (2) Smith, and Nutter Smith. David and Nutter survived their father but died intestate without issue. Dorman Lofland petitions to divide property.