Family talk:Comfort Smith and Margaret Unknown (1)

Identification of family's pre-Revolution origin [4 October 2014]

There were two Comfort Smith UELs in Fredericksburg. One seems to have been slightly younger than this one, single, and from NY, although it still needs to be proven which was which.

Proof that there were two is found in two places:

1. Haldimand Papers, as noted down by Charles Burleigh in his "Smith" file (p 85 in the pdf), which is available online from Queens U. Apparently looking at v B 166 of the Haldimand Papers, which seems to be an index and then probably referencing the primary document, Burleigh made notes of all Smiths in what he thought was a Nov 1783 list "Exclusive of Upper Posts[?]" and it seems to include household statistics (presumably males/females/male children over 12/under 12, over 6/under 6/female children over 12/under 12, over 6/under 6) and recent location and there are TWO Comfort Smiths with different origins and household statistics on that list:
   1. Comfort Smith 0/1////// New York
   2. Comfort Smith 1/1////// Vermont, Shoemaker
2. The 1824 will of the Comfort Smith who was the father of Elizabeth and Sarah (and only Elizabeth and Sarah), the later of whom was married to John Clapp. Comfort and Margaret are known to be the parents of Sarah from a 1792 entry in the Langhorn register.

Existence of the two Comfort Smiths of Richmond/Fredericksburg townships in Lennox & Addington County, Ontario are evidenced by:

1. two entries in 1789 and 1792 on the Langhorn register
   1. Fredericksburg, 14 June 1789 when Comfort and Margaret Smith witnessed the marriage of James Parke, widower, and Susanna Marsh, widow (a third witness was Mary Schermerhorn)
   2. The baptism of their daughter Sarah is recorded in the Langhorn register in 1792.
2. own 1797 land petition in the name of Comfort Smith,
3. the 1809 land petitions of Elizabeth Foote and Sally Clapp, daughters of Comfort Smith, who both wrote their own signatures
4. the much later 1832, and 1833 land petitions of Catherine, Richard, Tyrus, and Eleazer Smith, children of the other Comfort Smith, on which they all signed with a mark

Only one Comfort is a UEL on the rolls, as a private in the King's Royal Rangers; he does not appear on the 2006 reconstruction of the muster rolls of the King's Royal Regiment and the 1797 petition, whichever one it was by, seems to have requested land in the "tenth township" (Richmond) which was to the north and west of the township lands associated with the regimental grants. Much more land work is needed.

It seems likely an elder daughter Elizabeth, who was married to David Foote by 1809, was born in Richmond or Fredericksburg in 1787 and that the family came to the area very close to 1783/84. Getting lot and concession numbers will hopefully enable a search of the property records. There are no obvious candidate descendants of this family on the county atlases from the 1870s (Smith being a common name).

Additionally, Richmond township cemeteries are not heavily indexed to date and this leaves the possibility that tombstone inscriptions are yet to be discovered, possibly for Margaret. Comfort of this family seems to have died in Fredericksburg in 1824 and was presumably buried there, although if Margaret was buried in an earlier location farther north, he may have been interred there as well.

A matrilineal descendant of Margaret (through Elizabeth) has undergone mtDNA testing and reports haplotype H. Sally's mtDMA line died out as her only daughter had only one child, a son.

The best Revolutionary-period clues to where Comfort Smith and his wife were from before coming to Canada seem to be in the Haldimand Papers, as noted down by Charles Burleigh in his "Smith" file (p 85 in the pdf), which is available online from Queens U. Apparently looking at v B 166 of the Haldimand Papers, which seems to be an index and then probably referencing the primary document, Burleigh made notes of all Smiths in what he thought was a Nov 1783 list "Exclusive of Upper Posts[?]" and it seems to include household statistics (presumably males/females/male children over 12/under 12, over 6/under 6/female children over 12/under 12, over 6/under 6) and recent location and further investigation is needed to determine which is the Comfort Smith of this family, although the working assumption is he is the one from Vermont with a wife (i.e. Margaret) who then had children in the late 1780s and early 1790s, while the other Comfort had his family in the early 1800s and 1810s.

• Comfort Smith 0/1////// New York
• Comfort Smith 1/1////// Vermont, Shoemaker

Additionally, there is an illegible note inserted by Comfort's name on his daughter Sally's land petition in 1809. The land petition reads, in part "petitioner is the Dagter[sic] of Comfort [line break] [left margin note:] of vud Sch??? [insertion mark, text block begins:]Smith[insertion mark] UE Loyast[sic]" The illegible bit could be "fredericksburg" or it could be something else. See page 906 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=8f225uis3i219sqc2msv6m6ib5&sqn=906&q2=29&q3=2390&tt=1019

--Artefacts 16:54, 13 September 2014 (UTC)