Family:John Smith and Catherine Unknown (1)

Sorting Out Smith Families

It one is not careful, one may end up with three children born to John Smith in the same year: Waitstill b. Dorchester 11 Dec 1658; Francis b. Reading 23 Dec 1658; Samuel b. Dorchester 18 Jan 1658/59. Obviously, there are multiple John Smiths. It turns out, three, at least.

Two with Wives Named Catherine

Two of the John Smiths had wives named Catherine. These are relatively easy to sort out based on geography. Nonetheless, one must be alert to considerable confusion in the literature between the couple of this page and Family:John Smith and Catherine Morrill (1). This wife on this page is not Catherine Morrill. Catherine Morrill and her husband John Smith lived in Reading, and after she died, that John Smith married Mary Bill and moved to Chelsea. On the other hand, the couple of this page is found in Dorchester until John Smith died, when the widow moved to Boston.

Two John Smiths in Dorchester

There are two John Smiths in Dorchester. When the other John Smith died in 1676, his wife Miriam remarried and joined the church in 1682 and had her children baptized: adults James and Mary, minors Anna, Merriam, Sarah & David. From this we assume that this John Smith did not belong to the church, so the baptisms in the church records help identify the children that belong to John Smith quartermaster.

Date of Marriage

Though he did not name all his children, the will of John Smith quartermaster indicates he had two daughters named Mary. So we have to assume the excommunication (and reinstatement) of John Smith and wife in 1655 and the "deferred" baptism of a daughter Mary all refer to this couple. These records help to indicate the likely date of this second wedding.

Samuel Not Placed

Of the three children born in 1658, the child Waitstill belongs to quartermaster John Smith, since on 23 May 1702 "Katharine Smith of Dorchester ..., widow and relict of John Smith yeoman, late deceased, Charles Davenport and Waitstill his wife, Samuel Bayley and Deliverance his wife, Samuel Smith, shipwright, all in New England, which said Waitstill, Deliverance and Samuel were the daughters and son of the said John Smith" deeded land [Suffolk Land Records 28:58]. Francis Smith belongs to the Reading couple: John Smith and Catherine Morrill.

There is no specific evidence showing what family Samuel Smith belonged to. There is a record of his birth on 18 Jan 1658/59. It conflicts with Waitstill so cannot be in Quartermaster John's family, who besides, has a separate son named Samuel born 26 Dec 1662, and the spacing of children doesn't even allow for a misrecorded date.

Dorchester church records show the baptism of "Samuell ye Sonne of ----" in April 1659 which cannot be said with confidence to be the same Samuel (though every other birth of a Samuel in the surrounding months can be matched with its own baptism, so it might be). Robert Charles Anderson decided the most reasonable guess was that this Samuel is probably the son of the other Dorchester John Smith and his wife Miriam. If so, he presumably died young since he was not in evidence when their children were baptized after the father died.

1. ↑ First Church (Dorchester, Massachusetts). Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636-1734. (Boston, Massachusetts: G. H. Ellis, 1891).

   [p. 164] "Same daye ["18 - (12) 54", 18 Feb 1654/55] John Smith and his wiffe were Excomunicated ffor Comitting ffornincatio together beffore marriage w'ch was ffound out by the birth of ther child albeit they beinge questioned ffor it beffore the Church did Conceale their sin: untill god palpably charged it upo[n] y'm by that means."
   [p. 166] "This daye ["22 (2) 1655", 22 Apr 1655] John Smith & his wiffe were both Receaved againe into the church haveinge beene Excomunicated haveinge beene before the church the 15th daye & upon some scruple about her both were defferred & this daye she got hardly in some ffor her some against her & some neuters:"
   [p. 167] "Same daye ["17th (4) 55", 17 Jun 1655] mary Smith was Baptized her Baptisme havinge beene defferred upo[n] the Excomunicatio of her ffather & mother"
   [This suggests a birth in late 1654 or early 1655, and a marriage not quite 9 months before that, i.e., sometime in 1654.]