back Benjamin and Ruth Snow Smith next

We gather (from the former Town Clerk’s notes) that 5GGP Benjamin and Ruth came to Sandisfield after the 1748 birth (presumably in Eastham) of their daughter Ruth, even though daughters Dorcas and Ruth appear in Sandisfield’s vital records with earlier birth dates.

Their children:

  1. Dorcas Smith (b. 23 Aug 1746; m. John Bull)
  2. Richard Smith (b. [twin?] 6 Sep 1748; d. before 1796)
  3. Ruth Smith (b. [twin?] 6 Sep 1748; m. Matthew Smith)
  4. Rebecca Smith (b. 13 Aug 1750; d. 24 Sep 1806; our 4GGM, m. 4GGF Daniel Hurd)
  5. Benjamin Smith (b. 8 Dec 1752; d. 19 Apr 1826; executor of his father’s estate in 1796)
  6. Amasa Smith (b. 24 Nov 1754)
  7. Lot Smith1 (b. 29 Feb 1756; m. Ruth)
  8. Sarah Smith (b. 14 Sep 1758; m. Richard Chapel)
  9. Elizabeth Smith (b. 29 Mar 1762; m. Elihu Allen)
  10. Reubin Smith (b. 17 Jan 1765; m. Phoebe)
  11. Elkins Smith (b. 1767; d. 19 Jul 1768)

Putative son Richard (twin of Ruth?) is not mentioned in the VRs, nor is caboose son Elkins, about whom we know only because his parents erected a gravestone in his memory when he died young. Each of the other nine Smith children lived long enough to receive a portion in the 1796 administration of Benjamin’s estate.

Apart from Grandma Rebecca and little Uncle Elkins, I haven’t yet found the graves of any of this generation, nor of their children.

1An amusing story about Grandma Ruth Smith and our Uncle Lot, transcribed by the former Town Clerk from Shepard’s History (In Beers History of Berkshire County 1885) may provide grounds for suspecting even a later date -- say circa 1755 -- for the Smith family’s arrival in Sandisfield: “The first birth of a white male child in the town, it is claimed, was that of Lot Smith, who was born Feb 29, 1756. It was proposed in a warrant for a proprietor’s meeting that they should consider the question of granting a lot of land to the first male child born in town; but for some reason no action was taken in the matter, and the mother of Mr. Smith said he should have a lot, so called his name Lot.” The Clerk notes that no surviving warrant contains such a proposal. Whatever the facts of the case, I treasure this as the only recorded utterance I know of, attributed to a member of this family.


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