In October, 1791, their daughter, Sarah [Smith], in her seventeenth year was married to Benjamin Dabney. He was a widower with three children, though but twenty-seven years old. Sarah's stepdaughter, Ann, afterward married her brother, Major Thomas Smith, b. January 17, 1778.
Benjamin Dabney had given up the family mansion at Dabney's Ferry, together with his patrimony, on his father's death, to his brother and his half-brothers, and he made his home on the York River, at Bellevue, in King and Queen County. He had also, to some extent, used his own means in the education of his half-brother, James Dabney, and his wife's favorite brother, John Augustine Smith. Both young men received medical educations abroad - James Dabney in Edinborough, and John Augustine Smith in London and Paris. His kindness and trust were not misplaced. When his own early death deprived his children of a father's care, Dr. James Dabney and Dr. John Augustine Smith were the best friends whom his children had. ...