SAMUEL SMITH was born in the newly incorporated (but not yet named) town of Glastonbury (the eastern part of the ancient town of Wethersfield), Connecticut, February 20, 1691–2, the sixth child and third son of Samuel Smith, one of the original settlers, and of Jane, daughter of Owen Tudor, of Windsor.
In April, 1716, the Trustees invited Mr. Smith (then of Glastonbury) to become a tutor in the School at Saybrook, and the invitation not having been accepted, it was repeated in October, when it was voted to remove the School to New Haven. The rupture in the board of Trustees in consequence of this last vote, caused a secession from the College, and the gathering of about half the students at Wethersfield, for instruction under Mr. Smith (who by his localties would belong to the party, which objected to New Haven) and Elisha Williams (Harv. 1711). This arrangement continued until December, 1718; afterwards, when the breach was healed, and the Wethersfield students recognized as a part of the College, it seemed right to recognize Mr. Smith as a tutor, and his name accordingly appears in the official lists.
Meantime he had been studying theology, and in 1719 or 1720 began to preach in a parish newly organized in the northwest part of Lebanon, Connecticut, and called Lebanon Crank, since 1804 the town of Columbia. The General Assembly sanctioned in October, 1720, the formation of a church in this parish, and he was accordingly ordained there before the close of the year. His health, however, soon failed (“lunatic,” says a memorandum of President Stiles), and the parish granted his request to lay down the pastoral office, December 24, 1724.
He died May 27, 1725, on the day of the ordination of his successor, William Gager (Y. C. 1721); in the sermon preached at this ordination by the Rev. Eliphalet Adams, and subsequently published, reference is made (p. 29) to Mr. Smith's having been “forced to Desist from his Ministerial Labours, by reason of Bodily Indisposition, Continuing and increasing upon him.”
