By Elaine C. Nichols*

Genealogical Journal 19 (1991): 138-143
Published by Utah Genealogical Association
http://www.infouga.org/

Robert Smith of Ipswich, Topsfield, and Boxford, Massachusetts, the third great-grandfather and immigrant ancestor of Joseph Smith, Prophet and First President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, did not indicate in any way that he had any brothers or sisters in the new world.¹ Court records of Essex County, Massachusetts, in the trial of Richard Coy vs. Mr. William Hubbard, Sr. on 27 March 1655 show that Mr. John Whittingham brought boys with him from Boston, Lincolnshire, England, to London and from there to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1638 to be indentured servants. Robert Smith testified as one of those boys about the length of their indenture.² He later deposed in the Essex County, Massachusetts, Court at Ipswich on 29 March 1659 that he was thirty-three years of age and had lived with Simon Tutle’s mother about eight or nine years before.³
John Whittingham in his will probated in Essex County, Massachusetts, in 1649, identifies himself as of Ipswich and mentions property he owns in Southerton (Sutterton) near Boston in Lincolnshire.⁴ These two pieces of information, which are all that are known from American sources about Robert Smith’s background, have lead descendants to believe he was born about 1626 somewhere in the vicinity of Sutterton or Boston, Lincolnshire, England. Parishes immediately surrounding Sutterton are Kirton, Algarkirk, Surfleet, Gosberton, Donnington, and Wigtoft. Within five miles are several more parishes—including Boston where Robert sailed with Mr. Whittingham.
The parish registers of these places were not readily available for many years, however, so research did not proceed until the end of World War II when filming of parish registers in England by the Genealogical Society of Utah was begun in earnest.
The parish registers of Lincolnshire were filmed after receiving permission from the Bishop of Lincoln and the permission of the individual ministers. Research by the Genealogical Society of Utah commenced in order to find a likely christening for Robert Smith. A Robert Smith, christened 30 April 1626, son of Robert Smith, was found at Kirton, which neighbors Sutterton on the north. Another Robert Smith has been found in the vicinity of Boston. He was christened in Boston itself on 19 March 1626, the son of Simon Smith. However, this Robert was buried a week later on 27 March 1626.⁵
Further research in the Kirton registers by the Genealogical Society revealed what were thought to be the christenings of the immigrant’s grandfather and great-grandfather. A report of this was made by Archibald F. Bennett, then secretary of the Genealogical Society of Utah, on p. 268 of the April 1950 issue of The Improvement Era, an LDS church magazine:

Robert Smith, first American ancestor on this patriarchal line, came in 1638, as a boy apprentice of twelve, and stands today at the head of a very numerous posterity. It is now possible to print, for the first time his date and place of christening. He was baptized in the parish church of Kirton, Lincolnshire, England, 30 April 1626, the son of another Robert Smith. This earlier Robert was christened there 4 March 1595. His father in turn was Edward, christened at Kirton, 30 September 1571. Research continues on this family, aided now by microfilm copies of parish registers.⁶

A thorough study of the Kirton parish register, however, throws some doubt on this assertion. Genealogical research here suffers from the same problems found in most English parish registers of the time. Mothers’ names rarely appear in the early christening records, so children are listed as the offspring of but one parent—the father. Children of men named Robert Smith recorded in the Kirton parish register (which begins in 1561) appear in groups—that is, there are two in 1603 and 1604, there are fourteen between 1620 and 1637, and six between 1656 and 1676. Since Robert the Immigrant was born about 1626 according to his testimony, it is the group between 1620 and 1637 that is of most interest.
Reading both christening and burials, the following children of a father name Robert Smith are found⁷:

Ann chr. 9 Jan 1619/20
John chr. 16 Jun 1622
Thomas chr. 30 May 1624; bur. 12 Nov 1635
William chr. 30 Jan 1625/6; bur. 29 Jan 1625/6 [sic]
Robert chr. 30 Apr 1626
William chr. 30 Sep 1627
Susan chr. 11 May 1628; bur. 3 Oct 1629
Katherine chr. 15 Nov 1629; bur. 25 Nov 1629
John chr. 26 Jun 1631; bur. 12 Nov 1638 as “son of Robert Smith ye elder”
Samuel chr. 17 Feb 1632/33; bur 18 Jul 1636, son of Robert, Sr.
Robert chr. 20 Jul 1634
Thomas chr. 8 Feb 1634/5 as son of “Robert ju”; bur. 29 Nov 1635
Elizabeth chr. 10 Nov 1636 daughter of Robert and Martha
Susan chr. 30 Jul 1637; bur. 28 Aug 1637 daughter of Robert and Margaret

It becomes immediately evident there are at least two parental Robert Smiths, for Elizabeth, daughter of Robert and Martha was christened in November 1636 and Susan, daughter of Robert and Margaret, was christened just eight months later in July of 1637, the last child in this group. How many children belong to each Robert? Which ones might be brothers and sisters of Robert born in 1626? Which paternal Robert is the one born in 1595?
What of the marriages of Robert Smiths in Kirton? Are they not helpful? There are three in the early 1600s. Robert Smith and Fraunces Stone were married 29 July 1602. Fraunces was buried 20 May 1608. They appear to be the parents of the children christened in 1603 and 1604. There is not another marriage of Robert Smith until a man of that name married Grace Watson
1 June 1624. Burials show that Grace Smith, wife of Robert, was buried 21 February 1625/26. The next marriage is that of Robert Smith and Margaret Gilpin on 8 November 1626.
Now three wives—Grace, Margaret, and Martha—are known who could be mothers of children born 1620-1637. Grace was probably not Robert the Immigrant’s mother as she died before he was christened—unless she died in childbirth with Robert and he was christened about a month later. Certainly Margaret was not the mother of the immigrant, since she was not married until after Robert’s birth. This leaves Martha as the most likely mother. There is, however, no marriage of a Robert Smith to Martha in this or surrounding parishes.
Burials in Kirton show the burials of three Robert Smiths:

Robert Smith, householder, bur. 6 Oct 1626
Robert Smith the younger, householder, bur. 11 Nov 1638
Robert Smith, householder bur 20 Oct 1643

It is apparent that there are three Robert Smiths who could be fathers of the 1620-1637 group of children, and yet there is only one christening of a Robert Smith in Kirton 1561-1620—Robert, the some of Edward christened in 1595. Can it be said with any certainty that the father of Robert the Immigrant was that Robert? It cannot, so this author believes that the claim of Robert, son of Edward, cannot be accepted, nor can any claims of who might be siblings of Robert, for insufficient information is found in the parish registers.
Every Smith will in the diocese of Lincoln for the time period has been read,⁸ but not one shed any light on these families. Perhaps other records will be found at some future date, but for now, the parentage of Robert Smith of Boxford goes no further than his father Robert and possible mother Martha.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

* 2121 Kensington Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84108. Mrs. Nichols holds a BS in elementary education from the University of Utah. She has served as secretary and Vice-President of the Professional Chapter of the Utah Genealogical Association. She is the author of Descendants of Joseph F. Smith 1838-1918 (Provo: J. Grand Stevenson, 1976); “Myles of Sutton, Suffolk” NEHGR 138 (1984): 39; “Elizabeth, Wife of William Stickney of Rowley, Mass.,” NEHGR 139 (1985): 319; “Pioneers to Utah over Seventy Years Old, 1847-1869,” Genealogical Journal 18 (1990): 53, “Family Group Record Fraud,” Genealogical Journal 19 (1991): 71. Mrs. Nichols is Chairman of the Genealogical Committee of the Asael Smith Family Organization.

1. Editor’s Note: Robert Smith has been previously treated in print in four other places:

Ethel Stanwood Bolton, “Robert Smith of Boxford” New England Historic Genealogical Register 55 (July 1901): 267-271.

Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Lieut. Amos Towne 1737-1793 of Arundel (Kennebunkport), Maine (1927, reprinted, Decorah, Iowa: The Anundsen Publishing Co., 1987), 25-27.

Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale (Independence, Mo.: Herald Publishing House, 1929), 51-54.

John B. Threlfall, “Robert Smith of Ipswich and Boxford,” Genealogical Journal 8 (December 1979): 201-209.

Bolton and Threlfall did not discuss his English origins, Anderson stated that he was born about 1626 in Toppesfield, Essex, England, citing “Massachusetts Genealogies, Cutter 1:111” —a source that cannot be traced. The three biographical/genealogical compendiums published by William R. Cutter that might be the intended reference (Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Massachusetts, and New England) contain no information regarding Robert Smith in the cited volume and page.

Early Salt Lake Temple Records show Robert Smith as the son of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” with three siblings: William, Lucy, and Jemima, all of Topsfield, Massachusetts. The Family Group Record Archives makes the immigrant Robert Smith the son of Robert and Margaret Smith, christened at Sutterton, England on 6 August 1626 with older siblings Edward, chr. 2 Feb 1616 at Frampton, Robert, chr. 22 Aug 1619 at Frampton and buried 30 Aug 1627 at Frampton, and Margaret, christened 1623 at Sutterton. Reference to the register of Sutterton on FHL microfilm 094065 shows no christening for Robert on 6 August 1626—to the contrary, there is a christening of Joshua, son of Robert Smith on 14 May 1626. The most recent edition of the Ancestral File [18 December 1991] shows Robert and Margaret Smith of Kirton, Frampton, and Sutterton, Lincolnshire with children Edward, Robert (1619-1627), Margaret, all born in England, and children William, Lucy, and Jemima all of Topsfield, Massachusetts. The Robert christened in 1626 has been deleted. The problems with this Smith family will be treated by Mrs. Nichols in an article to be published in a future issue of the Genealogical Journal. In the current Ancestral File, the ancestry of Robert Smith the immigrant is carried no further his presumed father, Robert Smith, without attempting to identify his mother.

The identification of the christening at Kirton as that of the immigrant Robert Smith is not being called into question by Mrs. Nichols (through see footnote 5 below)—the purpose of this article is to demonstrate the care with which one must reconstruct families with common surnames when the parish registers do not give sufficient identifying information about the parents.
2. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts Volume I 1636-1656 (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911), 381.
3. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts Volume II 1656-1662 (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911), 141.
4. The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts Volume I 1635-1664 (1916, rept. Decorah, Iowa: The Anundsen Publish Co., 1988), 103-105.
5. Editor’s Note: This Robert Smith had been previously noted by Walter Goodwin Davis in The Ancestry of Lieut. Amos Towne, p. 25. Davis’ assessment of the problem is worth quoting here:

“An examination of the parish register of Boston discloses a Robert Smith baptized in 1626, but the burial records show that he died within a year. Experience in attempted identifications of English emigrants to America teaches that it is always unwise to leap at conclusions unsupported by very strong evidence, and this is particularly the case with a surname as common as Smith.”

The 1988 CD-ROM version of the International Genealogical Index lists seven Robert Smiths christened in Lincolnshire in 1625 or 1626, all of which were entered from controlled extraction, including the christening at Kirton. Interestingly, the new March 1992 microfiche version of the IGI adds no new Robert Smiths from controlled extraction. Of the six christenings besides that at Kirton, only one took place within ten miles of Sutterton, that of Robert, son of William Smyth, on 3 September 1626 at Pinchbeck, a few miles to the southwest. There is no burial for this Robert up to 1640 in the Pinchbeck registers [FHL #1542015]. The christening at Kirton still seems more likely due to its situation between Sutterton and Boston. In addition, a strict interpretation of Robert’s age of 33 on 29 March 1659 would preclude a birthday in September 1626. Nevertheless, Davis’ admonition should be kept in mind if evidence ever comes to light that the Kirton christening is not of the immigrant.
6. Archibald F. Bennett, “Born of Goodly Parents,” The Improvement Era 53 (April 1950): 268-269.
7. These and other extracts from Kirton are taken from the parish registers [FHL #094062], as compared with the bishops transcripts [FHL#504265].
8. Research conducted by the Genealogical Committee of the Asael Smith Family Organization.