John Smith (abt. 1629 - 1676)

Born about 1629 in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay

Husband of Miriam Deane — married [date unknown] (to 1657) in New England

Descendants

Died 17 Sep 1676 at about age 47 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Dana Burns [send private message]

Biography

Born possibly after John and Dorothy Smith arrived in Dorchester in 1630-1633

John Smith married Miriam (Unknown), who has been incorrectly identified as Miriam Deane in multiple sources.^[1] See Miriam's profile for details.

17 September 1676 died in Dorchester, leaving his wife a widow with six children^[1][2]

Children

Children of John and Miriam (Unknown) Smith:^[1][3]

1. Samuel, b. 1 March 1658/9
2. James
3. Mary
4. Hannah/Anna, b. 1664, m. 10 Sep 1684 Moses Barrett^[1]
5. Miriam, m. bef. 1688 John Glover
6. Sarah
7. David

Most of the children weren't baptized as infants but instead years later in 1682/3, some as adults, after Miriam Smith was widowed and remarried Ellis Wood.^[3]

Disambiguation

In A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, James Savage attempts to sort out the many John Smiths in early New England.^[4]

John of 1630: Top of Page 118: "John, Dorchester 1630, came in the Mary and John, a man of Distinct, no doubt from Co. Devon, brot. fam. prob. s. John, perhaps Lawrence..."

Quartermaster John Smith/John of 1635: Bottom of p. 120: "John, Dorchester, came in 1635 with w. and d. Mary." This is John Smith the Quartermaster who is neither this John Smith nor his father, but did relocate to Dorchester in 1635.

In Glover Memorials and Genealogies, Anna Glover claims the John Smith of this profile was the eldest son of Quartermaster John Smith by his second wife Mary.^[5] However the John Smith of this profile died in 1676 leaving behind six children, while John the eldest son of John Smith the Quartermaster was baptized in 1656 and would likely have only been 20 years old in 1676. This must be a different John Smith. (Also John Smith the Quartermaster's second wife was not named Mary, so Anna Glover seems to have gotten quite a bit of information wrong.)

The only mention I find of John and Dorothy Smith in the Dorchester records is in 1636, the same year Quartermaster John Smith and his first wife Dorothy moved to Dorchester. Are we sure this John Smith's wife was Dorothy? Or have the records once again become conflated?

Research notes

Birth date estimated based on birth of son Samuel.

Married Miriam (Unknown) who after his death remarried to Ellis Wood.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Snow, Nora Emma. The Snow-Estes Ancestry, Volume 2. Hillburn, NY: 1939. Page 218-220.
2. ↑ Dorchester Births, Marriages, and Deaths to the End of 1825. Boston, MA: Rockwell and Churchill, 1890.Page 29.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Records of the First Church at Dorchester, in New England, 1636-1734. Boston, MA: George H. Ellis, 1891. Page 14, 192, 194
4. ↑ Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1862);Vol.4,pp. 118-123.
5. ↑ Glover, Anna. Glover Memorials and Genealogies : An Account of John Glover of Dorchester, Massachusetts and His Descendants, with a Brief Sketch of the Glovers who First Settled in New Jersey, Virginia, and Other Places. Boston, MA: David Clapp and Son, 1867. Page 209.

See also

• Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700, Vol 2. Page 1395.