After reading through Andrew Smith’s blog “Blackmore Area Local History
A record of history & heritage: buildings, people & landscape in this corner of Essex” I saw an individual post a query regarding Customer Smythe, John Smyth, Esq. of Rivenhall, Essex, and Capt John Smith of Jamestown, VA fame. I thought I would take a moment to discuss Capt John Smith and his Smith lineage.

Firstly, no one in North America is likely descended from either Customer or Capt. John Smith. From the wills of Capt John Smith himself, we find that he had no children. I have seen a 19th century transcription of these documents at my local library and I believe I have photos of the pages, but I will have to dig for them in my digital archives. He bequeaths all of his possessions to the children of his brothers. He had two brothers (and possibly a sister I believe) and their lines stayed in England.

Next, Captain John Smith is well documented as having been born in Willoughby, Linconshire, England. His father was a George Smith and his mother an Alice Rickard. George’s father was a “Master John Smith” who appears to have lived in Louth around 1552. Here’s my source, and it appears very credible.

The above referenced document does appear to link a Nicholas Smyth of Theddlethorpe, a man who referred to himself as a first cousin of Captain John Smith, to a John Smyth of Epping, Essex. PLEASE note that the author makes no connection, (or even a suggestion of a connection, mind you), to John (Carrington) Smyth, Esq. of Rivenhall, Essex. There is definitely not a connection to Kent.

Finally, to further distance these two Smith lines, I wish to present a visitiation record I found on Google Books entitled “The Smyths of Theddlethorpe“. It describes these Smyth’s coat of arms thusly: “Sable, on a chevron engrailed, between six crosses pate’s fitche’e or, three fleurs-de-lis azure, each charged with a plate.” Even without showing you a picture of what this looks like, we can see that the description is completely different from any previously documented coat of arms I have detailed within my blog.

I hope you have found my blog page and the pages I linked to useful in differentiating Capt John Smith of Jamestown, VA fame from the Smith line of John (Carrington) Smyth, Esq. of Rivenhall and the line of Sir Thomas “Customer” Smythe of Westenhanger in Kent.

Thank you for reading.

Chris Smith

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am not a proponent of outing someone on the internet by name, but a certain individual has made quite a mess of things with their research and I wish to make it known just how terrible their publications to the internet have been.

Before I begin, I will admit that yes, I myself have posted incorrect information to the interwebs and have even caused a stir or two among some online communities with my early genealogical work. That said, I have, when proven wrong, conceded and worked towards revising my postings and sending corrected e-mails to the researchers who were involved in the subject at hand. (I do these compilations all on my own, and ask questions that many have not, so they will have errors inevitably.)

I can not say that Gary Ray Smith has made such an effort. In fact, Gary has gone to great lengths to make sure that the internet is aware his relationship to Maj. Lawrence Smith and Sir Thomas “Customer” Smythe, as well as others. Allow me to explain.

Starting back on August 2, 2008, Gary posted the following to a Genealogy.com message board. He claimed to be able to link a Martin Alexander Smith (Gary’s Smith ancestor) to Major Lawrence Smith. A keen researcher will immediately doubt the accuracy of this work, but others will more than happily accept it at face value.

To further mess things up, Group R-M269-8 on SmithsWorldWide.org has chosen to USE the same tree Gary has in his posting as the basis for their tree back to Maj Lawrence Smith’s father! Aghh! They now have a yDNA line linked to Maj. Lawrence Smith and it’s not even correct! I find it interesting that this research matches that of Linda G. Cheeks. I would suspect that Gary found Linda’s research and adopted it as his own, or something like that.

More on Martin Alexander Smith in a moment. He’s the main reason I’m upset with Gary’s online activity.

According to Gary, this is how he believes, due to his “relatedness” to Maj. Lawrence Smith, his own coat of arms, today, in The US of A, should look.

I will do my best to explain what he has done. First, he has combined the primary design elements of the coat of arms of Sir Thomas “Customer” Smythe with those of Maj. Lawrence Smith, those being the three lions from Customer’s arms and the acorns and chevron of Lawrence’s. He has then replaced the ounce (snow leopard) of Customer’s crest with a lion passant, arbitrarily. Please remember that none of these Smith lines are related, even distantly.

Ok, so if someone’s doing something like this in their own time in the privacy of your own home, I have no problem with it. It definitely is a history lesson in the right light and a creative work of art. However, when someone takes this concoction of a coat of arms and pastes it all over the internet and falsely claims they’re related to Maj.Lawrence Smith,then yeah, that’s a problem for the online genealogical community. He had this fake coat of arms (a variant of one of the pictures on the previously linked page) uploaded to FindAGrave.com and it was the primary photo for Maj. Lawrence Smith for quite a while, a year at a minimum. It appears to have been removed, finally, at the time of this writing. Nope! I was wrong. Xpofer Smyth (who was NOT a Lt. Christopher Smith) still has Gary’s fake coat of arms attached to it along with a completely unrelated coa as well. Agh!!

The other thing that really burns me is that Gary went on to claim that he is related to William the Conqueror by way of his Smith line. Now this is an extraordinary claim and one that many online will make without too much proof. (I have read that there is a saying in England that “All Smiths are Carringtons”).

The issue with this is that Gary went on to make a Yahoo! Group called “The Sir Thomas Smythe Clan”, a group that was created around the idea of Gary’s Smith line being related to Customer Smythe and therefore (sigh) John Carrington, Esq. of Rivenhall, and further, William (Guillaume) the Conqueror. As my research has shown, and as some before me have concluded, Customer Smythe was not related to John Carrington, Esq., nor was Maj. Lawrence Smith related to Customer Smythe! This group included folks from all around the planet who were interested in genealogy and early English history, some even writing persuasive essays on the benefits of a benevolent monarchy. (Customer Smythe was involved in The East India Trading Company and his son was involved in The Virginia Company. Also, Queen Elizabeth II is supposed to be descended from Maj. Lawrence Smith’s brother, Col. John Smith of Purton (or Shooter’s Hill?) who married Mary Warner of Warner Hall.)

At a very minimum, he should have stated that his work was a work in progress and containing conjecture, but he decided to make this posting and matter-of-fact-ly state that he was of Lawrence Smith’s line. This lineage Gary has concocted is EVERYWHERE and I’ve seen Gary’s posting used as a source in a number of trees. Tens of thousands of trees on Ancestry.com and elsewhere all reflect this bogus line! Linda G. Cheek is also to blame for this prolific false truth.

Additionally, I have found that Gary is involved in a few websites that discuss The Klu Klux Klan. Be it pity, compassion, or sympathy, I do understand that we can not choose who we are birthed from in this world. That said, Gary made a choice to link his Martin Alexander Smith, a member of The Knights of the Golden Circle [video about National Treasure 2], to Maj. Lawrence Smith’s line, Customer Smythe’s line, and the agnatic line of William the Conqueror. I know these connections are not true and were created by Gary to inflate his online presence, a means for what ends I am unsure.

Let me be clear, an ancestor of Gary Ray Smith, a one Martin Alexander Smith, who was a conspirator with John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was not an agnate of (related on the male line to): Maj. Lawrence Smith, Sir Thomas “Customer” Smythe, John Carrington, Esq. of Rivenhall, or William the Conqueror. I feel this is what I mostly want to say in a nutshell.

Thanks for reading,

Chris Smith

Note: As of the writing of this document, it appears that Google’s search results are mostly purged of Gary’s websites. He is still active online, but not in a genealogical research capacity. Only a few web postings of his still show up if you search for any of the above Smith lines I’ve mentioned.

Thanks for hanging in there with me folks.

Today I was presented with an opportunity to begin consolidating my research on the Carrington Smiths of Rivenhall and Blackmore in Essex.

Early Virginia

According to a number of credible sources, it can be shown that an Arthur Smith of Blackmore, Essex immigrated to Isle of Wight Co, VA in the mid 1600’s.

This Arthur Smith is one of the individuals who has had their lineage mangled. I wish to present the most credible sources I have found for his line and the lines of his close agnates.

The Smiths of Smith’s Neck, Isle of Wight County, Virginia – by Lloyd E. Warren – William and Mary Quarterly

17th Century England

Stepping back even further in time, the following tree show agnatic descendants of John Carrington, Esq. of Rivenhall in Essex. These lines all existed in England. They are all prior to the Smith immigrations to North America.

Here is a great blog authored by Andrew Smith in Essex, UK. Many thanks to him for his great work on researching the family of Smiths in Blackmore.

Blackmore Area Local History – Blackmore: Thomas Smyth born c.1605 Braintree

I’m going to put it to you simply folks, if you can’t link a Smith line you are researching back to one of these lines, then your research subject is not descended from John Smith, Esq. of Rivenhall in Essex.

Also, here is a link to “The Peerage.com”. The William Smith I am sending you to was, I believe, an heir to The Lords Carrington in his time. Follow his Smith line up/back for more information. For some reason the website stops with Hugh Smith who died in Witham, Essex in 1486, but we can see him in this below tree (5th row, far left) to complete the link to John Smith, Esq. of Rivenhall in Essex.

William Smith of Cressing Temple

Additionally, the following PDF found on Archive.org has a rather detailed pedigree and account of the Smiths as the line pertains to the earliest The Lords Carrington.

The Smith Family… – By Elliot Stock – published 1904 [starting on page 66].

And even further back…

This book has been a very interesting read. It appears to have taken great care in recording the details of the Carrington Smiths and shows a lineage back to Hamo de Carynton, nephew of Hamo de Massey, a man who accompanied William (I) the Conqueror to The Battle of Hastings.

History and Records of the Smith-Carington Family – edited by Walter Arthur Copinger [lots of letters…]

I will post more as I find my old research. It is my hope that these accounts all agree, but I can not say that I know that to be a certainty at the moment. However, all the aforementioned documents claim to be discussing the same Smith line and are in a general agreement.

Thanks for reading!

Chris Smith