Forums> Group DNA Discussion Forums> Smith Tangled Lines


smithsworldwide (Admin)
Jeremiah Smith of -Smithfield, Berkshire, MA, Ontario NY m Rachel Wilbur
Jeremiah Smith
Posted by smithsworldwide in Smith Tangled Lines on March 17, 2022 Views:(1799)  Replies (3)
PostID:2532        Please Login/Register to reply to this topic


Jeremiah Smith b 24 Sep 1740 in Smithfield, RI. Married Rachel Wilbur. children were Hannah, Isaac, Samuel Asa, Robert, all born at East Hoosuck Reference Rachel Wilburn was daughter of George Wilbur who married, first Rachesl Sherman in 1738 at Dartmouth, Bristol County, MA Ref  Rachel was the widow of Caleb Macomber, and had a son Caleb b 1769 in Dartmouth. Other details of this Wilbur family, including where he died, if he married a second time, etc need sources. Note the list of children for Jeremiah with dates. Rachel must have passed away before 1802 when Jeremiah married Lydia ?, widow of Isaac Colvin in Farmington, Ontario Co NY. 
Jeremiah came around 1790 from Adams, Berkshire Co MA to Ontario County NY. Ref Deed from Stephen Warner to Jeremiah Smith 17 Feb 1792. Note that the first reference, from Pioneers of Macedon notes that a Jacob Smith came with him and that his son is Asa B Smith. (Asa B Smith also says his father Jeremiah built the mill in 1800 Ref)  in 1794, Jeremiah and Jacob sold land to Caleb MacComber of Adams, Berkshire Co MA. Ref I believe this is Jeremiah's stepson-cmopare with the 1850 Macedon, Wayne Co NY census #255:255 which shows a Caleb McOmber b c 1769 MA.  A Henry Wilbur from Dartmouth who married Deborah Freelove  also came to NY, and had an affinity of some kind with Jeremiah Smith. Ref  
Of the children: The book "Quaker Records from Farmington Monthly Meeting" by Frost mentions some of he children listed afore. 
The book "Quaker Records from Farmington Monthly Meeting" by Frost lists the marriage of Jeremiah Smith of Palmira of Ontario Co NY to Lydia Colvin, widow of Isaac Colvin of Palmira 17 6 m 1802 at Farmington
1. Hannah Smith b 1783 at East Hoosuck, Adams Co MA married Gideon Ramsdell Ref  and is buried in the North Farmington Friends Cemetery. She would have been about 9 years old when father Jeremiah came to NY
2. Isaac W Smith b 1785 East Hoosuck is possibly the same one that died in Niagara County, New York. He would have been about 7 years old when his father Jeremiah came to Ontario County. He was listed in a deed from brother Asa Smith in 1811 in Farmington Ref He is also listed in a deed between he and his brother Robert in 1813
3. Samuel Smith was born 1787 at Adams Co MA, married Merab Jones Ref  (Shows he is son of Jeremiah and Rachel). He sold land to Aldrich Colvin in 1813, with his wife Merab listed as signature, sold land to Jared Comstock in 1813, with Isaac Smith and Asa Smith as witnesses,  Ref and his will is in 1813 at Farmington, Ontario Co NY Ref Merab Smith quit claims to Asa Smith in 1814 in Ontario Co NY. He would have been about 5 years old when his father Jeremiah came to NY. 
4. Asa Smith was born 27 Oct 1788 at East Hoosuck, MA. His marriage to  Hannah Comstock in 1808 at Palmyra Ref  (Shows his parents are Jeremiah and Rachel) Asa Smith, who also lists as Asa B Smith, lists an indenture in 1838 between himself and Jonathan Ramsdell (Either brother to Gideon Ramsdell -Jonathan Smith m Lydia Lapham or Son of Gideon Ramsdell and Hannah Smith -Jonathan Ramsdell of Perinton, who is also listed in Gideon Ramsdell's will) He would have been about 3 years old when his father came to NY
5. Robert Smith b 1791 at East Hoosuck MA is listed in a deed from he and his wife Martha to Isaac Smith in 1813 in Ontario Co NY. Ref This deed shows him and Martha as living in Perrinton, while Isaac Smith lives in Palmyra. He was born about the time his father Jeremiah came to NY. It appears Robert went to live around his sister. He can be found in 1814 selling 106 acres of land to Thomas Dyer and Noah Ramsdell (one of Gideon and Hannah's sons) in 1814, Ref Do not know what happened to him after that, but given that at least one Ramsdell went west, maybe he did too. 

Side note that there is an interesting history about Abraham Lapham, who in 1790 lives next door to Jeremiah Smith, and near Henry Wilbur and Charles Smith. Ref According to the book "Laphams in America" the Pioneer Settler"

"... followed closely the Sullivan Expedition of 1790, which cleared Western New York of its Indian occupants.. the first sale was that of Township No 11 Range 3 to a company of twelve men from Adams, Mass, named Nathan Comstock, Benjamin Russell, Abraham Lapham, Benjamin Lapham, Edmund Jenks, Jeremiah Brown, Ephraim Pisk, Nathan Aldrich, Nathan Herrendeen, Stephen Smith, Benj Richerson, Dr Daniel Brown. ... Many of the pioneers were members of the "Society of Friends" ...."

(Sullivan expedition actually 1779. )Also, Abraham Lapham came in company with Henry Wilbur. Abraham Lapham b July 15 1755 was from Smithfield RI. One of the early Laphams, Thomas Lapham b 1705 married Abigail Wilbur. Abigail Wilbur's parents were Benjamin Wilbur m Elizabeth Head and son George Wilbur and Deborah  are parents of Rachel Wlibur who married Jeremiah Smith. (Reference from marriage to Rachel's first husband Caleb Macomber)


 
             
Posted by fins2thright on April 12, 2022 02:24:08 PM  
CommentID 428

Thank you for so much for this very informative post.  I believe I am a direct blood descendent of Jeremiah Smith, so I have a very close interest in this lineage.  One comment I would make in the interest of disentanglement: If as noted here Jeremiah was a Quaker, and I believe he was, it would be very unusual that Asa Smith would also be known as Asa B. Smith.  This is because Quakers, as a rule, did not use middle names.  There might be an entanglement of Asa Smith's here, and one that has vexed my family for generations and caused our lineage to be traced to multiple pioneers.  I am currenly doing Y-DNA testing and will report back on any disentanglement information that might bring forth.
             
Posted by smithsworldwide on April 12, 2022 04:56:09 PM  
CommentID 429

On the Asa *B*. Take a look at the Asa B Smith m Hannah Comstock family on this site, with a number of deed references, etc. First one is from "Pioneers of Maceson" in which a Daniel Thrasher said he heard Asa B Smith say that his father Jeremiah Smith built the mill in 1800. Farmington Monthly meeting (Quaker) of Ontario Co NY shows the marriage of Asa Smith and Hannah Comstock and lists Asa as being son of Jeremiah and Rachel (dec) of Palmyra. The 1850 census of Macedon shows Asa *B* Smith b c 1788 MA m Hannah C Smith which is clearly Hannah Comstock. Asa is also listed with *B* on the 1860 Macedon, Wayne Co NY census. There is a deed from 1838 between Asa B Smith of Macedon and Isaac Hathaway of Farmington. Also a deed between Asa B Smith and Jonathan Ramsdell and Gideon Herendeen. Jeremiah's daughter Hannah smith m Gideon Ramsdell, and had son Jonathan Ramsdell. Deed in 1838 between Asa B Smith of Macedon, Isaac Hathaway of Farmington and Gideon Herendeen of Farmington. Deed between Isaac Lapham and Asa B Smith of Macedon in 1834. Deed between Asa B Smith and David Little in 1830. (I believe Isaac Lapham may be son of David Lapham and Judith Smith; Isaac married Mary, daughter of Jacob Smith of Farmington NY ) 

What is tantalizing about this is that Judith Smith is supposed to be a daughter of William  "Quaker"  Smith who was born in 1773 Bristol Co MA and died in 1819 in Shelburne Chittendon Co VT, m Elizabeth Howland. There is another Asa Smith, your Asa Smith who married Lura Bidgood, daughter of Remington Bidgood in 1808 in Shelburne, Chittenden Co VT, and can be consistently found in Mooers, Clinton Co NY in 1820, 1830, 1850, 1860 and 1870. According to the History of Clinton and Franklin Counties NY, this Asa Smith came to these counties from Canada and was a native of Vermont. This Asa Smith cannot be the same Asa Smith as the one in Ontario Co NY.. But William Smith did have a son Gideon Smith who was born in 1753 in Dartmouth and died 1798 in Shelburne, and another, Noah Smith also from Dartmouth that went to Ontario Canada. If, as a theory, Asa Smith was a member of a family that left MA, went to Vermont, and thence to Canada, from which Asa, said to have been borin Vernont and came to Clinton Co NY FROM Canada, could he have been more closely related to William Smith. To add to this, it appears that Jonathan Smith b 1706 in Dartmouth m Phebe Russell was the father to William AND to a Stephen Smith who died before 1804 in Farmington. 
             
Posted by fins2thright on May 12, 2022 10:36:48 AM  
CommentID 435

I have spent a good bit of time considering and researching these notes and I agree that my Asa Smith (1788) cannot be the same Asa Smith who married Hannah Comstock and who appears in "Pioneers of Macedon". SO that severes the link to Jeremiah and the Quakers and puts my research back to Asa himself. 

I agree that he is more likely the person you outline in the second paragraph of the above comment.  One interesting thing to note is that Clinton, NY sits on the Canadian border to the North and on the Vermont border to the East.  My research has shown that it was at that time a very porous border surrounding a river where people moved freely between Vermont, Canada, and New York and inter-married frequently.  This all makes sense in the context of documents that alternately place the birthplace of Asa(1788) in Canada or Vermont.

The one confusing fact I keep coming back to is that in the 1850 Clinton, NY federal census log, Asa Smith is living with one of his sons in Clinton, and Lura is living next door with another of Asa's son.  She has been declared as 'insane" in that record by the way.  Asa, who is 62 at the time, says his place of birth is Massachusetts!?  I am left confused as to why he would say this, since Mass is a place of birth that is not in the Clinton, NY border area.

For now it is a deep mystery that I feel only continued Y-DNA research may resolve.  I have completed a Y-DNA kit and am actively looking at other Smith lines to find a match that might solve this mystery.

Thank you for all of your help!