CHAPTER XI. THE FIFTH GENERATION. WE E now come to the fifth generation of the family, being the first born in America ;-the children of Daniel, Emanuel, Samuel and the third Richard Smith. Daniel, who married Mary Murfin, had four sons, Daniel, (second,) Robert, John and Benjamin, and a daughter Katharine, the youngest child. Emanuel, who married Mary Willis, left three daughters, Sarah, Mary and Anne. The first two, only, married; Sarah, firstly, to Kinsey, and secondly, to Samuel Coxe; Mary to George Eyre. As none of the descendants of these lines have been of the family name, and as Emanuel, himself, was rather a Bramham-than a Burlington-Smith, these lines do not come strictly within the scope of a history of the Burlington Smiths; I have not been able, as yet, fully to trace them. Samuel married, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Edmund Lovett, member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, from Bucks County-by whom he had three children; and secondly, Dorothea Gyles. His children, (by the first wife only,) were Richard, Samuel and Mary; Richard and Mary only, left issue. Dr. Richard Smith married Anna Marshall, and had five children, Richard, James, Rachel, William and Jonathan ; the first three of whom left issue. The task before us is to trace the history of ten persons and their descendants; five of the eldest line, two of the middle line, and three of the youngest line. Let us first take up the eldest line, that of Daniel and Mary Murfin Smith. The eldest son, Daniel Smith, the second, (member of assembly in 1742,) was born in the year 1696. He married, on "Tenth month 17th, A. D. 1719," Mary Hoedt or Hood, daughter of Casper Hoedt, a Dutch “Friend,” from Amsterdam; the only instance in our family of an intermarriage with the European races who settled here in advance of the English. J. Sansom, in his Smith MS., says, "He was a very amiable character, and acquired a considerable fortune by trade," (the West India trade before mentioned,) "upon which he lived hospitably, and as he had only two daughters to provide for, he made a generous distribution of it at his decease." Daniel Smith, (second,) and his next brother, Robert Smith, born in 1698, both continued to reside in the large, old mansion of their father, at the corner of Broad and Main Streets, Burlington, and at Daniel's death, in 1769, it became Robert's property. Mary and Sarah, Daniel's daughters, married two Philadelphians, Thomas Lightfoot and James Pemberton. Robert Smith, the second brother, was for several years in the commission of the peace, for Burlington County, "and filled that and several other public offices with reputation."* He married Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. John Bacon, of Chesterfield, brother of the Hon. Samuel Bacon, of Salem, whose descent from lord-keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon, has been indicated. I have the certificate of the second marriage of this John Bacon, showing that he married Priscilla, daughter of John Leppington, of Housham, County York, England, in 1711, at the "Friends"'" meeting, in Sheffield. Elizabeth Bacon's mother was his first wife, Elizabeth Smith, of Salem, before mentioned. The father afterward removed to his brother's place at Bacon's Neck, near Salem, where he died. He had formerly served there as justice of the quorum, etc. Judge Robert Smith died in 1781; of his goodness of heart, is preserved the interesting reminiscence that two aged household slaves, man and wife, were so affected by their kind master's death, that after it they lost their spirits, pined away and soon died. The third brother, John Smith, born *He was Recorder of the City of Burlington and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the years 1737-1769, etc. 1700, was, according to the family biographer, Joseph Sansom," an active, intelligent man, and went over to the West Indies, in 1726, where he married Anne. Farrel, a woman of large estate, by whom he had issue, but no survivors. He died in the Island of Jamaica, about 1760." Benjamin Smith, the fourth son, was born in 1704. "He married Sarah Burling, and lived many years at Prime Hope Mills, on the Delaware, where he died about the year 1760, and was interred at Burlington.” The youngest child, Katharine, was born in 1711. She married, in 1731, William Callender, originally of the Island of Barbadoes, where his ancestors had held land as early as 1638. At the time of their marriage he was engaged, as a merchant, in the shipping trade between that island and America, but settled at Philadelphia on marriage, the bride's parents making this a condition of their consent. of their consent. He represented Philadelphia in assembly in the years 1753, 1754 and 1755, Benjamin Franklin being the other representative. His country-seat on the banks of the Delaware, known for many years as “Callender's Place," is described as a most agreeable retreat, and here he exercised a large and genial hospitality. He died in 1763, and his widow in 1789. She had removed, on her husband's death, to her native place, Burlington, but, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, was so annoyed by the soldiers being quartered at her residence, that she closed the house and spent her last days in Philadelphia. in return, sugars, rum and other tropical She was interred among her ancestors at her ancestors at products. He owned and even built his Burlington. The funeral took place vessels, sending his sons with them as from the old house, in which she was supercargoes. His wharves and wareborn, then the property of her nephew, houses were on what is now called Green the third Daniel Smith; the remains Bank, the favorite lounge of the gentry having been conveyed there by boat, in of Burlington, all vestige of its former three hours' sail from Philadelphia. commercial character having long disappeared. The growth of the great mart of Philadelphia has absorbed the commerce that was once Burlington's, but in those days the elder town was also the busier and the richer. The middle or second line of our family, descending from Samuel Smith, of Bramham, has but one male representative in this generation. Richard Smith, fourth of that name, whom, for distinction's sake, I shall call Richard Smith, of Green Hill, was born July 5th, 1699. He married, August 20th, 1719, Abigail, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Rapier, formerly of Sindersby, Yorkshire, and Abigail, his wife, daughter of William Perkins, the early colonist, whose death, on board the ship Shield, has already been mentioned. Richard Smith appears to have combined, in an unusual degree, the virtues of energy and business ability with gentleness and tenderness of heart. His hospitality was largely exercised toward traveling Friends, as extant letters from such men as Isaac Norris and others, amply testify. He represented Burlington in assembly for nearly twenty years with an ability which is witnessed by the confidence of his constituents and by the obituary presently to be quoted, while in his private affairs he showed an equal energy. He was extensively engaged in commerce to the West Indies, shipping thither colonial produce and receiving, The obituary in our often-quoted textbook, the "History of New Jersey," runs thus: "A. D. 1751, the 9th of November, died, in the fifty-third year of his age, Richard Smith: He represented Burlington in assembly near twenty years, through a great variety of difficult business: He maintained a fair reputation, was instrumental in procuring considerable provincial benefits, and hence, acquired the love of many, who had no opportunities of knowing him, but in a * It occupied an entire block between Main and two cross-streets. It gives a curious picture of the times, to read of ships passing Philadelphia to unload at Burlington. publick character. He was cool and even in his temper, impartial and conscientious in the discharge of his duty, kind and careful in every paternal relation, and generous in both sentiment and conduct." Dr. Franklin's paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, November 21st, 1751, said of Richard Smith: "Last week died Richard Smith, Esq., of Burlington, N. J., and was buried in Friends' burial ground in that city; in whom the characters of a generous, good-natured, hospitable man, true patriot and good Christian, were so truly blended, that he lived beloved and esteemed by all who knew him, and his death is lamented as a public loss by the people of that province.' He died in the harness, at Amboy, where he was attending in his place as an assemblyman. "The body was brought by his sorrowing sons to Burlington for interment, and was met on the road by a procession of his fellowcitizens desirous of showing their respect to his memory." A touching address to his children was found folded together with his will; I venture to quote it in full. It reminds one, by its gentle graces, of the letter formerly quoted, by his grandfather, Richard Smith, of Bramham. "BURLINGTON, 26th of 4th mo., 1750. "DEAR CHILDREN:-Inclosed you have my will, which I hope you will all be satisfied with; I have made it in the best and equallest manner I was capable of doing it at this time, and in the circumstances my affairs are in at present; nevertheless, if any difference should arise or happen between you concerning the matters contained in it, or any other occasion or thing, my advice is that he, she or they she or they concerned, more especially then retire before the Lord, humbly beseeching Him for a reconciliation, considering, as reasonable creatures, and as I have on such occasions often done, that the Great Lord, at whose disposal are the cattle of a thousand hills, and that He can give to whom He pleaseth; He, I say, consider, in the dispensations of His providence, with your honest endeavours, can give a blessing upon it, which may soon make up, or more than compensate what you suffer in interest for peace' sake, and the imprudence it would be to entertain a root of bitterness, producing strife, hatred, or, at least, ill-will, one towards another, to the grieving of the Holy Spirit and wounding your own souls, and thereby justly incur the displeasure of Him, whose blessing is absolutely necessary, and without which a great deal more would do you no good. I have nothing to add on temporal affairs ; you have known my mind as to spirituals. I shall only add that I rely on the mercy and goodness of Almighty God, that He will, through the mediation of His dear Son Jesus, blot out and forgive my trespasses against Him; and humbly implore His help that, for the time that is still to come, I may, through His grace, be my preserved from offending against Him, and that I may thus be watchful, looking to my Helper, until the time of dissolution shall come; that then He may be graciously pleased to receive my soul into eternal bliss. "Finally, dear children, live in peace one with another, and with all men as much as in you lieth; so may the God of peace grant you His peace and the assistance of His Holy Spirit, whilst you remain in this world of temptations and troubles, that you, through the help thereof, may be able to look up unto Him and surmount them all, and at last be accounted worthy of His mercy, and a mansion in His house where the wicked cease troubling and the weary are at rest. So fervently prayeth your "Affectionate father, RICHARD SMITH, Jr.” The "junior" distinguished him from his uncle, Dr. Richard Smith, who lived till this year, 1750. Richard Smith's only sister, Mary, born April 15th, 1701, married Joseph Noble, son of Abel Noble, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and grandson of William Noble, of Bristol, England. The last or youngest line of our family, in this generation, embraces the five children of Dr. Richard Smith, of Bramham, of whom a second "Richard Smith, junior," fourth in succession from the first Richard, of Bramham, his brother James and sister Rachel, are those, only, of whose issue we have record. The first-cousin and namesake of Richard, of Green Hill, married Hannah Peak; James Smith married a lady whose name is not on our record, and Rachel married Dr. John Pole, of Brattlehay, Somerset, England. On this third line of the family, my information is, at present, by no means as full as could be desired. |