1346 i.
Henry (1) SMITH Rev.
ii.
Henry (1)+ SMITH Rev.. "HENRY SMITH, A.M., b. Norwich, England, 1588;
matric. Sidney Sussex Coll., Camb., 1617; Magdalene Coll., Camb., A.B., 1621/2;
A.M., 1625; Ord. by the Bishop of Peterborough, June 8, 1623; sett. Watertown,
1636/7; sett. Wethersfield, Ct., 1641-1648, as the first minister; d. Wethersfield,
Ct., 1648."
--- Frederick Lewis Weis, *The Colonial Clergy and the Colonial Churches of New England*, 1936, p 189
"Rev. Henry Smith, immigrant ancestor, was born in England, in 1588, near Norfolk [Norwich?]. He came to America in 1636, and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1638. He is thought to have married twice, but the name of his first wife is not known. The name of his second wife was Dorothy, sister of Rev. John Cotton, of Boston. He died in 1658 [should be 1648], and she married (second) John Russell, father of Rev. John Russel, who succeeded Mr. Smith in the pastorate at Wethersfield, and who, ten years later, became the first minister at Hadley, and died May 8, 1890, aged eighty-three. Mrs. Dorothy (Smith) Russell died at Hadley in 1694. Children of Rev. Henry Smith: Peregrine, died unmarried; daughter, married and had children; daughter, married and had children; daughter, married and had children; Dorothy, born 1636; Samuel in Wethersfield, 1638, mentioned below; Joanna, Wethersfield, December 25, 1641; Noah, Wethersfield, February 25, 1643-44; Elizabeth, Wethersfield, August 25, 1648.
--- William Richard Cutter, *New England Families*, NY 1913, p 1614
(Added after what follows:) The following letter is quoted by Helen Evertson Smith [A COUSIN, IN THIS DB] in *Colonial Days and Ways, As Gathered from Family Paper*, 1900, rep 1966 in the American Classic Series by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, NY, p 47-52. She prefaces it with: "In the diary of Juliana Smith, 1779-81, there exists a copy of a fragment of a reminiscent letter, written in 1699 by the Rev. Henry Smith's son, Samuel Smith of Hadley, Massachusetts, to his son, Ichabod Smith, residing in Suffield, Connecticut, apparently in reply to some inquiries which the latter had made. (P) Juliana writes: "Today my Grandmother Smith gave me to read what is left unburnt of a Letter which was written to my Great-Grandfather by his Father & has permitted me to copy it. The Letter itself belongs to my Uncle Dan because he is my Grandfather's eldest son. A large part of it was burnt when my Grandfather's house in Suffield took fire, and was barely saved from destruction, with the loss of many things, especially Books & Papers. The Bible in which this Letter was found on the next day still smoulering, with more than half of its leaves burnt away, including a part of the Family Record & this Letter:---"
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A letter to his son Ichabod Smith from Samuel Smith about his father Rev. Henry Smith, quoted by Henry R Stiles in *The History of Ancient Wethersfield by Sherman W Adams and Henry R Stiles, vol 1, 1904, p 153-155:
"Hadley, Massachusetts Colony,
Jan. ye Firste, 1698/99
"My Dear & Dutiful Son: ... I was of so tender an Age at the Death of my beloved Father, that I am possessed of but little of the Information for wch you seek. My Revered Father was an ordained Minister of ye Gospelle, edicate at Cambridge in England & Came to yis Land by reason of ye Great Persecution by which ye Infamous Archbishop Laud and ye Black Tom Tyrante (as Mr. Russell was always wont to call ye Earl of Stratforde) did cause ye reign of his Majestie Charles ye Firste to loose favour in ye the sight of ye people of England. My Father and Mother came over in 1636/37, firste to Watertown which is neare Boston, & after a year or two to Weathersfield on ye great River, where he became ye firste settled Pastor.
"Concerning of ye earlie days I can remember but little save Hardship. My Parents had broughte both Men Servants & Maid Servants from England, but ye Maids tarried not but till they got Married, ye wch was shortly, for there was great scarcity of Women in ye Colonies. Ye men did abide better. Onne of em had married onne of my Mother's Maids & they did come with us to Weathersfield, to our grate Comforte for some years, untill they had manny littel onnes of theire Owne. I do well remember ye Face & Figure of my Honoured Father. He was 5 foote, 10 inches talle & spare of builde, tho not leane. He was an Active as ye Red Skin Men & sinewy. His delight was in sportes of strengthe, & withe his owne Hands he did helpe to reare bothe our owne House & ye Firste Meetinge House of Weatherfield, wherein he preacht yeares too fewe. He was well Featured & Fresh favoured with faire Skin & longe curling Hair (as neare all of us have had) with a merrie eye & swete smilinge Mouthe, tho he coulde frowne sternlie eno' when need was.
"Ye firste Meeting House was solid mayde to withstande ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins. Its Foundations was laide in ye feare of ye Lord, but its Walls was truly laide in ye feare of ye Indians for many & grate was ye Terrors of em. I do minde me yt alle ye able-bodyed Men did work thereat & ye old and feeble did watch in turns to espie if any Salvages was in hidinge neare & every Man keept his Musket nighe to his hande. I do not myself remember any of ye Attacks mayde by large bodeys of Indians whilst we did remayne in Weathersfield, but did oftimes hear of em. Several Families wch did live back a ways from ye River was either Murderdt or Captivated in my Boyhood & we all did live in constant feare of ye like. My father ever declardt there would not be so much to feare iff ye Red-Skins was treated with such mixture of Justice & Authority as they cld understand, but iff he was living now he must see that wee can do naught but *fight* em & that right heavily.
"After ye Red Skins ye grate Terror of our lives at Weathersfield & for many yeares after we had moved to Hadley to live was ye Wolves. Catamounts were bad eno' & so was ye Beares, but it was ye Wolves yt was ye worst. The noyse of theyre howlings was eno' to curdle ye bloode of ye stoutest & I have never seen ye man yt did not shiver at ye sounde of a Packe of em. What with ye way we hated em & ye goode money yt was offered for theyre Heads we do not heare em now so much, but when I do I feel again ye younge Hatred rising in my Blood & it is not a Sin because God mayde em to be hated. My Mother & Sister did each of em Kill more yan one of ye gray Howlers & once my oldest Sister shot a Beare yt came too neare ye House. He was a good Fatte onne & keept us all in meate for a good while. I guess one of her Daughters has got ye skinne.
"As most of ye Weathersfield settlers did come afoot throu ye Wilderness & brought with em such Things only as they did nost neede at ye firste, ye other Things was sent round from Boston in Vessels to come up the River to us. Some of the shippes did come safe to Weathersfield, but many were lost in a grate storm. Amongst em was onne wch held alle our Beste Things. A good many Yeares later, long after my Father had died of the grate Fever & my Mother had married Mr. Russell & moved to Hadley it was found yt some of our Things had been saved & keept in ye Forst wch is by ye River's Mouthe [Saybrook], & they was brought to us. Most of em was spoilt with Sea water and Moulde especially ye Bookes [Footnote by Juliana: 'My Father [Mr. Russell] hath one of these books --- The Vision of Piers Plowman. It is so ruinated with damp and mould yt no one can read ye whole of it'] & ye Plate. If this there was no grate store, only ye Tankard, wch I have, and some Spoones, divided amongst my Sisters, wch was alle so black it was long before any could come to its owne colour agen, [& Mr. Russell did opine yt had not been so it might not have founde us agen, but he was sometimes a little shorte of ye Charity wch thinketh no Evil, at ye least I was wont to think so when his Hand was too heavy on my Shoulders & I remembered ye sweetnesse & ye Charity of my firste Father ...]"
The part in brackets at the end isn't quoted by Adams and Stiles, but is found in *Hale, House and Related Families* by Donald Lines Jacobus & Edgar Francis Waterman, 1952, p 730-731, who other than this phrase quote less of the letter.
After the quotation of this letter by Helen Evertson Smith (see above), she writes (p 52): ""Here," writes the copyist, "there is a break" --- probably where the sheets of the original had been burned. (P) The silver tankard mentioned in the foregoing letter of Samuel Smith of Hadley is in all probability the one now belonging to my brother [i.e. bro of Helen Evertson Smith], Gilbert Livingston Smith of Sharon, Connecticut, though the earliest positive record which we have concerning it is in a bill of sale, including various things to the amount of nearly #700 [pounds], made to the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith by his brother, Simeon Smith, M.D., when the latter was leaving Sharon to take up his residence in Vermont in 1787. It is there described as "One ancient Silver Tankard marked with our coat of arms & S.S., bought by me from Brother Dan." The tankard now has on the side opposite the handle a spout, which was put on about 1820 that it might be used as a water-pitcher. Family tradition has always held that this tankard was brought from England in 1636 by the Rev. Henry Smith, and referred to in the letter just quoted."
"Mr. Smith had reached this country, going first to Watertown [MA], in 1636 or 1637, While the rule in New England pastorates was that the pastor was literally as well as figuratively the head of an obedient flock, which paid him all due deference, and dollowed his lead as sheep follow the piping of the shepherd, the pastors who successively essayed the charge of the church in Wethersfield were the unfortunate exceptions. In no sense could Mr. Smith have found his new pastorate a bed of roses. Besides the privations and hardships common to all pioneer pastors, there seems to have been a strong and most unusual element of turbulence in the membership of this wilderness church, for two preceding ministers had tried and failed to unite the members of the congregation sufficiently to secure a settlement, and the trouble did not immediately cease upon Mr. Smith's installation. Previous to or about the time of his settlement in Wethersfield the most prominent of the insurgents, under advice of the Rev. John Davenport and others, had removed to Stamford; yet the restless spirits who were left found enough to say against Mr. Smith's ministry during the next few years. There is evidence tending to show that he may have been too liberal in his construction of doctrinal views, and inclined to too great charity in matters of personal conduct, to suit the more rigid among the townsmen. In at least one instance matters went so far that the pastor was brought before the General Court on charges the nature of which is not now apparent; but it is recorded that fines which for that day were very heavy were laid upon certain individuals "for preferring a list of grievances against Mr. Smith and failing to prove in the prosecution thereof." From references to this, which appear in manuscript of about a century after this date, referring to this trial as a thing still remembered, it would seem that Mr. Smith was opposed to severity in church discipline, and also to the importation into the connecticut Colony of the bribe to hypocrisy which was offered by the law restricting to church-members the right of suffrage in town as well as church matters; and that he also preferred to believe an accused man to be innocent untiol he was proved guilty, and even then did not believe in proceeding to extremities until after every gentle means had been tried in vain. (P) One cause of animadversion is said to have been that Mr. Smith had advocated the separation of a wife from a drunken husband who had frightfully abused her and her children. This seems to have been thought by some members of the congregation to indicate great laxity of moral principle on the part of the pastor; but evidently the majority of the people were with him on these and other disputed points, and so were his friends, Mr. Thomas Hooker, the beloved pastor of the church at Hartford, and Mr. Warham of Windsor. Another complaint against Mr. Smith was that he refused to listen to those who brought him reports concerning alleged infractions of church discipline, on the ground that many of these things were matters which lay solely between a man and his Maker. In the end Mr. Smith carried the church with him, and when he died, in 1648, he was sincerely mourned even by those who at one time had "despitefully used" him. (P) Mr. Smith is said to have been "a scholarly man of gentle birth and breeding, a persuasive preacher and a loyal friend." "
--- Helen Evertson Smith, *Colonial Days and Ways, As Gathered from Family Papers*, 1900, rep 1966 in the American Classic Series by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, NY, p 41-43
From an Internet genealogy of Tracy Ahsley Crocker:
3,410 Henry (Reverend) Smith: He married Dorothy Cotton. Henry
was born circa 1588 in county Leicester, England. Henry
died 1648 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, at approximately 60
years of age.
3,411 Dorothy Cotton: She married Henry (Reverend) Smith.
Dorothy was born circa 1603. She married John Russell
1649. Dorothy died 1694 in Hadley, Massachusetts, at
approximately 91 years of age.
Excerpts from an article "The Reverend Henry Smith of Wethersfield" by Homer W. Brainard, TAG v 10 1933) p 7-14:
(p 7): "The origin in England of the Reverend Henry Smith, first pastor of the Church of Christ in Wethersfield, Connecticut, is still uncertain. Older writers, Goodwin and Savage and others following them, have made statements of conjectures that, in the light of recent study of the problem, appear to be untenale. This article offers a contribution to, but not a solution of, the problem. It presents considerations that may lead to a complete solution."
[p 10-11]: "There are three outstanding events in the life of Rev. Henry Smith which should have left records in England, viz.: His matriculation at one of the Colleges at Cambridge, his graduation there, his ordination and his trial before the High Commission Court, resulting in his being silenced or deprived of his benefice. As far as known no research has been made for finding exact records of any of these events, although they must exist. The lists of matriculations and degrees conferred by the University of Cambridge have been published. These contain the names of some twenty-two Henry Smiths from 1547 to 1638, of whom only three could by any possibility have been identical with Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfield. These three are:
"First. Henry Smith, matriculated at Siney College 1617; did not receive a degree. Needs no further consideration.
"Second. Henry Smith, matriculated 1618; A.B. 1621/2; A.M. 1625; Master of Magdalene College, 1642 [sic --- should be 1622???]; ordained deacon at Peterborough June 7, 1623, and ordained priest June 8, 1623. This Henry Smith was selected by the late J. Gardner Bartlett as identical with Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfield, and tentatively by the late Col. Charles E. Banks. In Lechford's *Note Book* (page 156 of the printed volume and page 102 of the original) is a Power of Attowney granted Aug. 8, 1639, by Samuel Appleton, then of Ipswich, Mass., formerly of Monkes Ely, county Suffolk, England, to Isaac Appleton, Esq., of Little Waldingfield in Suffolk, Henry Smith, Doctor of Divinity & Master of Magdalen College in Cambridge, and others. If Lechford's entry has been read aright, it shows that this Henry Smith, Master of Magdalen College in Cambridge, and others. If Lechford's entry has been read aright, it shows that this Henry Smith, Master of Magdalen College, was still in England when our Henry Smith was already in Wethersfield.
"Third. Henry Smith, matriculated from King's College; A.B. 1619/20; fellow of Kings. Nothing more had been discovered concerning him. This Henry Smith may possibly be our Henry Smith of Wethersfield. One is tempted to weave a web of conjecture that he was. Research will prove or disprove it."
[p 11-12]: "There was published at Hartford in 1856, under the title *Genealogical Notes by the late Nathaniel Goodwin*, for many years Judge of Probate for Hartford, a work which contains the earliest published account of Rev. Henry Smith and his descendants. Judge Goodwin concludes from the terms of Rev. Henry Smith's will that Smith must have had a wife before his wife Dorothy, who was the mother of the four younger children, born in Wethersfield, since his older daughters were in 1648 married and themselves had children. This opinion has been generally accepted by later writers. We venture to disagree. It is evident that Rev. Henry Smith was in 1636 in the prime of life and no more than thirty-five years of age. His wife Dorothy, doubtless some years younger than he, could have been the mother of his children and we so place them. The known children of Henry and Dorothy Smith were:
"1. Mary, born about 1624-5; married about 1642 Samuel Hale of Wethersfield.
2. Peregrine, born about 1629 or later; died before his father.
3. Rebecca, born about 1631; married first, Samuel Smith, Jr., son of Lieut. Samuel Smith, fellmonger, of Wethersfield and Hadley; second, Nathaniel Bowman. Letters in the Winthrop Collection prove that Rebecca's first husband deserted her, going away to Virginia; that she obtained a divorce and married in 1669 Nathaniel Bowman. A joint deposition (*Wethersfield Records*, vol. 1, p. 171), dated March 8, 1679-80, was made by Samuel Hale "aged sixty-five years" and Rebecca Bowman "aged about 50 years" pertaining to the lands originally granted to Rev. Henry Smith. Samuel Hale acquired the original home lot of Rev. Henry Smith, situated north of the entrance to the ancient cemetery in Wethersfield. The parish house of the First Congregastional Church stands upon or near this site. A letter written by Francis Hall of Stratford in 1674 mentions "my sister Bowman" and "my brother Hale."
4. Dorothy b. about 1633-5; married first, John Blackman, bapt. 1624 in England, son of Rev. Adam Blackman; married second, Francis Hall of Stratford, who died in 1689; married third, Mark Sension; married fourth, Deacon Isaac Moore, and died in 1706. She may have been older than Rebecca.
5. Samuel, b. Jan. 27, 1638-9 in Wethersfield; the writer of the letter quoted in the first part of this article [the one in this db]; married Mary Ensign.
6. Joanna, b. Dec. 25, 1641; m. Philip Russell, Feb. 4, 1664. She was killed by Indians Sept. 16\9, 1677.
7. Noah, b. Feb. 25, 1643; living May 8, 1648; called in his father's will "my second son"; not mentioned in his mother's will.
8. Elizabeth, b. Aug. 25, 1648; not mentioned in her mother's will."
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