One of Linda Cheek’s books, Ancestors and Descendants of Smiths, attempts to connect the lives and descendants of two very old Smith families: Maj. Lawrence Smith’s of Gloucester Co, VA and Thomas “Customer” Smythe’s.of Westenhanger Castle/Hall in Kent.
Linda, and others much earlier before her, claimed (incorrectly) that Maj. Lawrence Smith was a great-grandson of Customer Smythe, the first secretary to The East India Trading Company. Also, Sir Bernard Burke (The College of Arms in London) who wrote the “Burke’s Peerage” volumes claimed that Maj. Lawrence Smith was of “The Smiths of Totnes in Devon”. I believe it was Mr. Burke who sowed the initial seeds of misinformation regarding this Smith line way back when. Later, I believe Louise Pecquet du Bellet was the first source (that I have found at least) that claims Lawrence and an Arthur Smith (of Isle of Wight Co, VA) were brothers, and that Arthur was a nephew to Thomas Smythe (1st Viscount Strangford), the Treasurer for The Virginia Company.
All of this is completely incorrect. The contrived Customer Smythe lineage was first publish (as far as I can tell) around 1907.
Customer Smythe was from Westenhanger in Kent
Lawrence Smith was from Burnley in Lancashire (not Devon, I’ll get to that in a moment)
Arthur and Thomas Smith were from Blackmore in Essex
First, see my embedded text titled “Known sons of Customer and their known descendants” There may be some formatting issues, but it conclusively shows that it is likely that no one in North America is descended from Customer, and in all likelihood, he has no Smythe descendants alive today. If someone can show there is a Smythe line in England still alive, that would be very interesting.
–Known sons of Customer and their known descendants–
–BEGIN–
Andrew (Died an infant) John (Father of 1st Viscount Strangford) Henry (Settled at Corsham and Baydon) Thomas (Virginia Company) Richard (Leeds Castle) Symon (died at Cadiz) Robert (of Highgate) ---- Thomas Smythe (1st Viscount Strangford)(line died out) Sir John Smythe (m. Elizabeth Fineaux) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) Thomas Smythe (see visitaion of Wiltshire in 1623) Henry Smythe (of Corsham) (m. best guess Elizabeth Owen) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe (1705-1778)[END OF LINE](m. Sarah Farnaby, d/o Sir Charles Farnaby of Kippington in Kent, Baronet) (evangelicals) Henry Smythe (1676/7-1706) (m. Elizabeth Lloyd, d/o Dr. John Lloyd, canon of Windsor, Elizabeth's 2m. to William Hunt) (m. Elizabeth Hunt, d/o Dr. John Lloyd and Elizabeth Bickerstaffe) (alternate to above) Robert Smythe (16??-1659) (m. Catherine Stafford, d/o Sir William Stafford Blatherwyck)(half-brother of Lord Sunderland?)(constable of Dover)(an only child!!) Sir Robert Smythe of Sutton-at-Home (1620-?) (m. 8 Jul 1652, Lady Dorothy Sidney Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (previous marriage to Lord Spencer), sister to wife of a Lord Strangford, daughter of Robert Sidney and Dorothy Percy) Sir John Smythe of Bidborough (m. Isabella Rich)(purported to be the only son!!!) Thomas Smythe of Sutton-at-Home (1558-1625) (m. Sarah Blount, Countess) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) Sir John Smythe (of Leeds)(died issueless, had a sister Mary Smythe, heir to Leeds Castle) Sir Richard Smythe (1m. Elizabeth Scott, widow of John Knatchbull, 2m. Jane White, 3m. Mary Boyle)(collector of money for Duke of Cornwall) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) Symon Smythe?? (died at Capture (Siege?) of Cadiz, 1597) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) (unknown) Sir Robert Smythe (of Highgate)(not in the will of Alice Judd) Customer Smythe (1522-1591)(m. Alice Judd, d/o Sir Andrew Judd) ---- Note: (Nealhampton Manor, 1st owned by Sir Richard Sackville, then Customer Smythe, then passed down to Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe, and then willed to heirs (nieces and nephews, and as of MDCCXCVII (AD 1797)
–END–
Next, most (ok, just about every) relevant tree or genealogical webpage on the internet (and quite a few serious genealogical periodicals) refer to Maj. Lawrence Smith as a Smith of “The Smiths of Totnes in Devon”.
Here is Maj. Lawrence Smith’s coat of arms (I’ve verified this):
By way of his mother, Lawrence Smith was kin (after a while of course) to George Washington and some other folks that make this the Smith line people want to connect to. As a result, it is mangled on Ancestry.com and elsewhere. Heck, I’ve even thought I was descended from this guy. Further, because Maj. Lawrence Smith’s father’s name was Christopher (or more accurately Xpofer of Xpoferus), just about any Christopher Smith in colonial Virigina and North/South Carolina who was in the general vicinity of someone who could be descended from Lawrence (or his brother John) was considered a probable descendant*. (Yay for me? No…)
*William Sharp Smith is the best candidate I have found for being descended from Maj. Lawrence Smith. I do not know of yDNA for this line.
Now here are the arms of a Sir Bernard Smith, an MP for Totnes in 1558.
(I got this from Wikipedia, thanks!)Notice, they don’t match Lawrence’s. This is because Lawrence Smith’s family was of Stone Edge and Briercliffe Upon Hill cum Extwistle in Lancashire. This is where the Townleys were as well (Lawrence’s mother’s family). They were simply two different Smith families. For reference, those are barnacles (like from the ocean) on Sir Bernard’s arms. Lawrence’s were “acorns, slipped and leaved”. One book that discusses some of Xpofer Smith’s family is The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy. Additionally, there are at least two sources I have found on Google Books (what an amazing system) that discuss Xpofer Smith directly. Some of the pages are in latin. I’ll try to find them and post the URLs.
Additionally!!! Lawrence Smith was from Stone Edge not “Stonehenge”. He likely had a brother, Christopher Smith, who was from Blacko. (Christopher came over to VA as an indentured servant to a Livesay man.) There is also a visitation record that records him (Lawrence) as being from “Stannihurst”, referring to Stonyhurst Hall, today, Stonyhurst College. I have contacted Stonyhurst College and they have provided me the necessary evidence to prove that Lawrence Smith’s family (yes, the whole crew) had absolutely nothing to do with Stonyhurst Hall or the Shireburn family. The closest thing I found was that Xpofer Smith paid a sum of money to prove that his and his allied families were the true owners of their ancestral lands and members of The Honor of Clitheroe, and this included monies collected from the Shireburn family. In reality, this was more like extortion from the king (James I), but that’s for a whole ‘nother webpage.
Smith/Snelson line (“the Merchant” of Hanover, VA)
According to very credible sources, the line of Christopher Smith who married Catherine Snelson had a Smith crest of “a nag’s (horse’s) head and bridle”. It was on a spoon that had been passed down to the descendants of the Smith/Snelson union. This is the agnatic line of FamilyTreeDNA Group R-M269-8. If you ever see a tree with this guy in it and the lineage is referring to a line of “Christopher Smith I, II, and III, etc..”, it’s bunk-o.
Here’s the best source for this family I can find.
Back to Customer
Further, here are the arms for Thomas Smythe of Sutton at Home in Kent (a snow leopard [called an Ounce] for a crest):
(above: the arms of Sir Thomas Smythe of Sutton at Home in Kent, progenitor of the line of Viscounts Strangford)
Here are the arms for Arthur Smith of Blackmore in Essex (a peacock inside a funny hat for a crest):
(above: the arms of Smith of Blackmore)
Arthur settled in Isle of Wight Co, VA in the early to mid 1600’s. Smithfield was founded by one of his descendants.
Prior to the peacock, they looked like this (a unicorn in another funny hat for a crest):
[A note: Arms of purported to be those of Smith of Wooten in Warwickshire. I believe these may have been created by the efforts of Richard Smith-Carington as an attempted homage to his claimed Carrington alias Smith ancestry.”Wigorn Sigillum” translates roughly to “Seal of Worcestershire”.]
[A second note: In the event the above arms were made after the lifetime of the first Viscount Carrington (temp. Charles I), this (at the bottom) is likely the arms of the Viscounts Carrington, descendants of the Smiths of Cressing Temple.]
Arthur’s arms were derived from those of John Smith, Esq. of Rivenhall in Essex.
I think that between the Customer Smythe tree I have made (it took a few days to research it all) and the coat of arms being sorted out, it can clearly be shown that a lot of the information on the internet regarding the early Smiths of North America is, well, not true.
The internet is such an amazing invention. It can allow for amazing collaborative efforts if we work together. Please feel free to share this with anyone researching Smiths so that we can begin to counter the misinformation that has spread throughout the internet. This is my goal.
I hope you all enjoyed this.
Happy researching!
Tracing my Smiths - by Christopher A. Smith - © 2021 