webmaster
Mike
Welch
JAMES
SMITH, SR.
b. ca 1725 MD - d. 1791 NC
ALIAS: JAMES “RICHARD” SMITH
James Smith, Sr. was born ca 1725 in Pickawaxen
Parish, Charles County MD. He was the son of Richard Smith
and Mary ____(?) , grandson of Richard Smith and Anne
Turner and great-grandson of Arthur Turner and Margaret ___(?)
all of Pickawaxen Parish, Charles County MD. [Southerland
Latham & Allied Families, Imogene Southerland Vorhees, 1947,
LDS-FHC.; Early Families of Southern Maryland, Elise
Greenup Jourdan, Vol. VII, 1998.]
Many descendants of Arthur Turner settled in Northern Neck VA
where it is likely that James Smith met and married Sarah Turner,
daughter of James Turner and Kerenhappuch Norman. The
earliest known record of James Smith, and Sarah Turner Smith is
in Culpeper County VA, 22 April 1751, as James Smith and Sarah
Turner Smith’s sister, Mary Turner, witness a deed for James Turner.
[Culpeper County VA Deeds 1749-1755, P. 307.]
James and Sarah Turner Smith lived in Pickawaxen Parish on
Richard and Mary Smith’s property called Smith until the death of
Richard Smith (ca 1762). Children of James and Sarah Turner
Smith: Richard (1750MD-1780VA), Mary (1752MD-1816TN), James
(1755MD-1817NC), John (1756MD-Bef.1816TN), Charles (1757MD-Abt 1818),
Benjamin (1758MD-Aft 1818), Sarah M.(1760MD-1842MS). [All dates
circa.]
Records indicate James Smith began to sell parcels of land in Charles
County MD, and by 1767, the family had moved to Halifax County VA near
Sarah’s parents, James Turner and Kerenhappuch Norman Turner who were
then living near Difficult Creek. [ Halifax CoVA Deeds, 1771, P. 206,
James Turner; VA Land Office Patents #37, P. 214, 1767, James
Smith, 400 acres on Buffalo Creek bounded by Joseph Echols’s
& Smith’s own line .]
James and Sarah Turner Smith’s oldest son, Richard Smith died in
Halifax CoVA. [Halifax CoVA, 1780, Will Book 1, P. 302.]
Another son, James Smith, Jr., was wounded in the Battle of
Guilford Courthouse NC (1781). By 1790 the Smith and Turner
families moved to Richmond County, NC where James Smith,
Sr. died in 1790. His will identifies only one son, John
Smith, and two daughters, Mary Ward, and Sarah Smith referring to the
rest as “all my children.” [Richmond CoNC, 1791, Will Book 1,
P.37.] The remainder of the sons are identified in the will
of Mary Ward, Maury CoTN. [Maury CoTN, 1816, Will
Book B-P.26,27.] Sarah Turner Smith moved with her son,
James Smith, Jr. and wife, Constantia Ford to Maury
County, TN by 1807. Sarah Turner Smith died in Maury County TN in
1812.
Additional information on the Smith Family of MD, VA, NC,
TN, may be found in the Memoirs of James N. Smith, Center for
American History, University of Texas at Austin. Memoirs also
available at the Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas; Daughters
of the American Revolution Library, Washington, D.C.; Daughters of the
Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, TX, and University of Texas at
Arlington Library; Early Southern Maryland Families, Vols. VII, VIII,
Elise Greenup Jourdan, 1998; Southerland Latham & Allied Families,
1931, Imogene Southerland Voorhees, LDS-FHC; www.kerenhappuch.com.
28 February 2000
Bennie Lou Hook Altom
Baltom@NovaOne.Net
