A Brief Biography by Bill Poole
John Smith, son of Samuel and Mary Mirick Smith, was born in Lexington, MA August 21, 1756 and died at Randolph, VT February 5, 1822. John married Sarah Lawrence daughter of Bezaleel and Sarah Muzzey Lawrence (b. September 3, 1759; d. December 12, 1843 at Randolph, VT) He was taxed from 1784 to 1788 in Lexington, but in 1789 his name was inserted in the list of inhabitants but then erased an indication that this was the year he removed to Vermont.
The first of John Smith’s ancestors to come to America was Thomas Smith who was born either June21, 1601 or April 14, 1605 in Colchester, Essex, England and died in Watertown, MA March 10, 1692/93. He had married Mary Knapp on June 29, 1636 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, daughter of William K. Knapp and Judith Tue. Thomas and Mary came to America on board the Ship James which left Bristol, England on May 23, 1635. The voyage was a frightening one as upon approaching New England they were struck by a hurricane and nearly wrecked.
“JAMES” of Bristol having one hundred passengers, honest people of Yorkshire, being put into the Isles of Shoals, lost three anchors: and setting sail, no canvas or ropes would hold, but she was driven within a cable’s length of the rocks at Pascataquack, when suddenly the wind, coming to N.W., put them back to the Isles of Shoals, and, being there ready to strike upon the rocks, they let out a piece of their mainsail, and weathered the rocks.
In addition to Thomas Smith, on board was Richard Mather, father of Increase Mather and grandfather of Cotton Mather. Also a passenger was John Evered, who in addition to being the first European to settle the area around present day Chelmsford, Haverhill and Dracut, MA, attained notoriety as Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston for the hanging of Mary Dyer for adhering to her Quaker faith.
Mather in his journal described the storm that stuck the James.
But yet ye Lord had not done with us, nor yet had let us see all his power and goodnesse which he would have us to take knowledge of ; and therefore on Saturday morning about breake of day, ye Lord sent forth a most terrible storme of raine and easterly wind, whereby wee were in as much danger as I thinke ever people were : for wee lost in yt morning three great ancres & cables; of wch cables, one having cost 50£ never had beene in any water before, two were broken by ye violence of ye waves, and ye third cut by ye seamen in extremity and distresse, to save ye ship and their & or lives. And wn or cables and ancres were all lost, wee [had] no outward meanes of deliverance but by loosing sayle, if so bee wee might get to ye sea from amongst ye Ilands & rockes where wee ancred: but ye Lord let us see yt orsayles could not save us neither, no more yn or cables & ancres; for by yeforce of ye wind & raine ye sayles were rent in sunder & split in pieces, as if they had beene but rotten rages.
However, having lost not a single passenger, the James landed at Boston on August 16, 1635.
Thomas settled at Watertown, MA where he was admitted as a freeman on May 17, 1635. Thomas and Mary had ten children all born at Watertown. Their fifth child, Joseph, was born June 10, 1643. He married on December 1, 1674 Hannah Tidd, daughter of John and Rebecca Wood Tidd, born September 21, 1652. John Tidd is the ancestor of all the Lexington Tidds. Joseph and Hannah had five children, the first of whom, also named Joseph, born in Watertown April 19, 1677.
Joseph married Mary Richards born May 15, 1680. They removed to that portion of Cambridge Farms which in 1713 was incorporated as Lexington, MA. Their ten children were born there, the sixth of whom was Samuel born June 19, 1714. Samuel married Mary Mirick, daughter of Samuel and Mary Stratton Merick on November 30, 1738 in Newton, MA. Mary was born at Newton either February or July 15, 1721. Samuel died May 4, 1760 at just age 46 and Mary died September 8, 1765 also at just age 46. They are buried in the Old Burying Ground, Lexington, MA.8 The first three of their ten children were born in Newton and the remainder in Lexington. Samuel and Mary’s ninth child was John, the subject of this biography.
John Smith stood on Lexington Common on the morning of April 19, 1775 along with the few other members of Captain John Parker’s militia company who had hastily responded to the urgent beat of William Diamond’s drum. Presumably, John also joined with Captain Parker to ambush the Regulars on their return from Concord at the site in Minute Man National Historic Park known as Parker’s Revenge.
John then continued his service with the militia and accumulated a fairly extensive military record during the Revolutionary War. Under the command of Captain Parker, he first went to Cambridge for two days on June 17 and 18, 1775 to support the Colonial Army besieging Boston. Then, according to Charles Hudson, “Lieutenant Daniel Harrington contributed 9£ 0s for John Smith for service in the Fourth Campaign, July, 1775, Five Months to Ticonderoga.” Perhaps Hudson confused the year since no record for such service in 1775 is recorded in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War. However, he is listed as serving with the Northern Army as a drummer at Fort Ticonderoga in 1776 as a member of Captain Charles Miles’ Company of Colonel Jonathan Reed’s Regiment. He was discharged from that regiment in December 1776 and received a 190 mile travel allowance home.
Subsequently, he served for three months and two days at Cambridge from April 2 to July 3, 1778, in Captain Daniel Harrington’s Company, Colonel Jonathan Reed’s regiment of guards. The entry listed John as among those members detached from Captain John Bridge’s and Captain Francis Brown’s companies of the Lexington Militia “to relieve the guards at Cambridge.” John served there as a corporal. Finally, he is recorded as enlisting for nine month’s service in Captain Nathan Dix’s Company of Colonel James Wesson’s (9th) Regiment from July 18, 1779 to probably April 18, 1780.
On November 15, 1781, John married Sarah Lawrence in Lexington. Her father, Bezaleel Lawrence, lived on Bedford Street not far from the Lexington and Bedford line. He was a wheelwright and may at one time have employed William Diamond, Captain Parker’s drummer. John and Sarah had nine children. Although the Lexington tax records list them as paying taxes in Lexington through 1778, their first two children were born in Winchendon, Ma, Esther in 1782 and Sally in 1787.13 It is thought that they moved to Randolph, VT about 1789 where all the rest of their children were born. The names and birth and death dates of their nine children are listed in a footnote below. Their son Bezaleel, named of course for his grandfather Bezaleel Lawrence, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1825, and became a much respected Congregation preacher. Both John and Sarah died in Randolph, VT and a stone in the Center Cemetery there marks their gravesite.
Footnotes
1 Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first Settlement to 1868, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1913, volume II-Genealogies, p. 635; 11Lexington, Massachusetts, Records of Births Marriages and Deaths to January 1, 1898, Part 1 from Earliest Record to End of 1853, Wright and Potter, Boston, 1898;
2Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth: A Study of the Emigrants and Emigration in Colonial Times: to which are Added Lists of Passengers to Boston and to the Bay Colony; the Ships which Brought Them; Their English Homes, and the Places of Their Settlement in Massachusetts, 1620-1640, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1930.
3Ibid., pp. 135-6.
4Charles Henry Pope, The Pioneers of Massachusetts, Heritage Books, Inc. Reprinted, Baltimore, 1991, p. 159, “John Evered biography.”
5Richard Mather, Journal to New England, 1635, The New England Historical Genealogical Society has the original in its Stanton Avery Collection, and the on-line version can be found at http://www.americanancestors.org/reverend-richard-mather/
6Banks, p. 136.
7Hudson, Volume II-Genealogies, p. 630; Fred G. Barker, Watertown, Massachusetts, Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, 1630-1693, Historical Society of Watertown, MA, 1894; Henry Bond, Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1855.
8Francis H. Brown, M.D., A Copy of Epitaphs in The Old Burying Ground of Lexington, Massachusetts, The Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA, 1905, p. 141; Joseph’s brother Thomas and wife Mary Hosmer Smith are also buried in The Old Burying Ground, ibid., p. 142.
9Hudson, Volume II-Genealogies, pp. 631, 635; Lexington, Mass., Vital Records of Lexington, Massachusetts through 1898, Births, Marriages and Deaths, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston, Mass., 1898; New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Vital Records of Newton, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Boston, Mass., 1905.
10 Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, A Compilation from the Archives, Seventeen volumes, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston, 1896, vol. 14, pp. 444, 446.
11Ibid., p. 457, 459
12Assessments and Tax lists, Town of Lexington 1784-1789, CD at Assessors Office, Lexington, MA.
13Franklin P. Rice, ed., Vital Records of Winchendon, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849, F.H. Gilson Company, 1909.
14The following information from gravestone markers and records courtesy of Bill DeFlorio of Randolph, VT. John and Sarah’s nine children were: 1. Sally, b. September 7. 1782 Winchendon, MA, place of death unknown; 2. Anna, b. September 27, 1784, place of birth unknown; 3. Esther, b. March 25, 1787 Winchendon, MA, m. Nathan Blood Shattuck May 22, 1823 Mason, Hillsborough, NH, d. Ashby, MA March 28, 1861; 4. “Deacon” John, b. October 25, 1789, Randolph, VT, d October 8, 1828 Randolph, VT; 5. Levi, b. October 5, 1791, Randolph, VT, d. October 8, 1828, Randolph, VT; 6. Lucy, b. June 18, 1794, Randolph, VT, d. January 6, 1819, Randolph, VT; 7. Bezaleel, b. April 2, 1797 West Randolph, VT, d. May 15, 1879 West Randolph, VT; 8. Hiram, b. October 11, 1799, Randolph, VT, living Randolph 1880 age 80; and 9. Maria, b. October 17, 1802, d. July 8, 1878, Randolph, VT.
15 Nickerson and Cox, Compiler and Arrangers, The Illustrated Historical Souvenir of Randolph, Vermont : Containing a Brief History of the Early Settlement of the Town, the Schools, Churches, Medical and Legal Professions, Old Families, Business and Manufacturing Interests, together with Portraits and Biographies of the Citizens Past and Present ,Randolph, VT, 1895;
16Photo through the generous courtesy of Bill DeFlorio of Randolph