THE CORNWALL SMITHS

The earliest verifiable record of the family is the marriage of William and Catherine Smith in 1722-23 (probably in Truro, the "County Town"). After their marriage, they moved to Mevagissey, a small fishing (and smuggling) village on th east coast of the Cornish peninsula, and began their family there. Taking into account "normal" marriage ages of William and his father (yet to be identified), we have traced the family back to about 1670.

William and Catherine had 6 children, 5 surviving infancy, as follows:

John: February 2, 1724, died December 26, 1789 (?)
Catherine: April 11, 1726, died October 10, 1727
Francis: April 22, 1728, died March 28, 1802
Jacob: October 25, 1730, died November 6, 1792
Absolom: July 25, 1733, died December 25, 1769
Catherine: July 25, 1733, apparently left the village later.

John appears to be the first in the verifiable line to have been a mariner, and there is strong evidence that he was the first in the family to go over to Guernsey. He married rather late, and apparently did not have children. The records strongly infer that he returned to Guernsey in the late 1780s, and both he and his wife died there. Jacob married and raised a large family (9 children), apparently never leaving the village. Absolom did not marry and died at age 36. There is a suggestion that he and Francis, our ancestor, were close: Francis named a son Absolom shortly after his brothers death (and, sadly, the child died in infancy). There is no verifiable further record of his twin sister Catherine: she may have married outside the parish and not returned.

Francis was a carpenter, possibly a ship's carpenter, and remained in Mevagissey all his life. There is a suggestion in parish records that at least two of his nephews and/or cousins apprenticed under his tutelage. He married Mary Davey, a local girl of 19, July, 1 1753. They had 5 children, only 2 surviving infancy:

Joseph: November 18, 1753, died November 4, 1793
William Davey: May 1, 1757, died at sea (1813 ?)
Elizabeth: October 14, 1759, died June 1, 1761
Elizabeth: September 10, 1763, died of small pox December 28, 1770
Francis: January 14, 176, died at birth

Mary also died, giving birth to Francis, on January 14, 1766. To provide for his young children, Francis almost immediately remarried (Catherine Bradley, a 19 year old girl from nearby Bodmin) April 29, 1766. Catherine died giving birth to a second son Francis on September 7, 1767, and the boy died on February 2, 1768, aged 5 months. Francis then married for the third time, marrying Joan Wakeford on March 15, 1770. She bore him a son Absolom, named after Francis's brother who had died in 1769, on April 4, 1770 (just a wee bit premature!) who died February 1, 1771, while she was pregnant with Margaret, who was baptized July 27, 1771. No further record of either Joan or Margaret has been found in Mevagissey or the computer records, so there is a strong inference that they left the area at some point.

Joseph was a mason, married, and raised a family of 3 children. He may have gone over to Guernsey for a few years, but this cannot be verified. There is a considerable period of time between his children and, given that the American Revolution took place when he was in his 20s, he may well have been away from home at that time.

Francis died March 28, 1802, officially as a "pauper", no doubt alone with his tragic memories.

Our ancestor William seems to have led a fascinating life. He appears to have married Elizabeth Crossman December 27, 1772, when he was just 15 (not uncommon in those days). The had 8 children, 7 surviving childhood: Ann (1773) who died in 1778, Jane (1777), Ann (1779), Mary (1781), William (1783), James (1785), Francis (1787) and Elizabeth (1789). William apparently went over to Guernsey after the birth of the last child (possibly to "take over" for his uncle John), and Elizabeth appears to have died on Guernsey in 1791.

The evidence and family folklore is that William was a ship's captain (as, we think, was his uncle John). He married Rebecca Stanbury, Annie's namesake, in 1795, as will be detailed later.