Person:Samuel Smith (379)

Which of Benjamin Smith's two wives was mother of the second Samuel?

We have the following data points:

Mary (Baldwin) Smith buried "3 August 1680" according to Jacobus and Abbott (Abbott appears to have taken the information from Jacobus). Not documented in either published vital records or published church records. Benjamin Smith married Sarah (Phippen) Houghton "9 Feb 1682" per published Milford vital records. Samuel Smith son of Benjamin baptized "Feb. 18, 1682" per published Milford church records.

Rather than the approach taken in the Welles genealogy which has this second Samuel a son of Benjamin's first wife, Mary Baldwin, it seems that the most likely sequence of these three events is (1) Mary (Baldwin) Smith died and was then buried 3 Aug 1680; (2) Benjamin Smith married, at Milford, Sarah (Phippen) Houghton 9 Feb 1681/82; and (3) the second Samuel was son of Sarah, baptized at Milford, 18 Feb 1682/83.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 56 Samuel Smith, in Mathews, Barbara Jean; Donna Holt Siemiatkoski; Kathryn Smith Black; and Nancy Pexa. The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut and His Wife Alice Tomes. (Wethersfield, Conn.: Welles Family Association, 2015)
   241.

   "56 … Samuel Smith, bapt. 18 Feb 1682 (Milford First Congregational Church Records, slip index citing 1:19) … Note that the second Samuel baptized 18 Feb 1682 is assumed to have been not the son of Benjamin's second wife but of his first. Benjamin had only married Sarah Houghton nine days previously. Milford First Congregational Church lists these children under their father's name only, but this indicates that he was a church member."

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} 3. Benjamin³ Smith, in Jacobus, Donald Lines. Smith Number - William Smith of Jamaica. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Apr 1949)
   25:72, 78.

   "Children by second wife, born at Milford: 31 … Samuel, bp. 18 Feb. 1682/3; d. 1769."
   "31. Samuel³ Smith, baptized at Milford, 18 Feb. 1682/3, died there in 1769 (will 18 Jan. 1764, proved March 1769); married Margaret Fowler, born at Milford, 4 Oct. 1698, died 20 Aug. 1750, aged 53 (gravestone), daughter of William and Anna (Beard) Fowler."

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} 2. Benjamin Smith, in Abbott, Susan Woodruff, and Jacquelyn Ladd Ricker. Families of Early Milford, Connecticut. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1979)
   676, 77.

   "4. Samuel (Smith) bpt 18 Feb 1682/3 (church record, First Congregational Society, Milford)"
   "4. Samuel Smith s of Benjamin was baptized 18 February 1682/3 (church record, First Congregational Society, Milford) and died 1769, will made 18 January 1764 and proved March 1769 . He married Margaret Fowler who was born Milford 4 October 1698 and died 20 August 1750 ae 53 (tombstone, Milford) dau of William and Anna (Beard)."

4. ↑ Pond, Nathan Gillett. Inscriptions on Tombstones in Milford, Conn. Erected Prior to 1800: Together with a Few of Aged Persons Who Died After that Date. (New Haven, Conn.: Printed for the Society, 1889)
   56.
5. ↑ Samuel Smith, in Find A Grave.
6.   Hale, Charles R. Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions. (Connecticut, United States: Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1934).
7. ↑ This gravestone must have been partially visible during the 1880's when the Milford inscriptions were recorded. It apparently has disappeared as it is not recorded in the Hale Collection. The date of death is off by 20 years.