Richard SMITH
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[3378]
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ABT 1613 - 7 Mar 1691
- BIRTH: ABT 1613, England
- DEATH: 7 Mar 1691, Smithtown, Suffolk, Long Island, NY
- EMIGRATION: MA
Family 1
: Sarah HAMMOND
- +Jonathan SMITH
- Elizabeth SMITH
- +Richard SMITH
- Job SMITH
- Adam SMITH
- Obadiah SMITH
- Samuel SMITH
- Daniel SMITH
- Deborah SMITH
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[3375]
Richard was popularly known as Richard "Bull" Smith, or the "Bull Rider". He purchased the land which became Smithtown from the Indians. He had been promised all the land that he could ride around on a bull between sunrise and sunset. He rode westward and then, turning south, followed the valley from the west side of the Fresh Pond -- a small body of water lying a short distance east of the present road which leads from the Fort Salonga four corners to the Sound -- through what has since been known as Bread and Cheese Hollow, because Smith ate his lunch of bread and cheese there as he rode along, and so up the hill to and through Whitman's Hollow (Commack) until he again turned eastward. This gave him land on the west as well as the east side of Nissequogue River. When the Eastern Purchase was made in 1656, it overlapped Smith lands on the west of the river. Naturally he asserted his claim. In April 1672 Huntington laid out the coastal territory between Northport Harbor and Nissequogue River into ten farms, assigning each to certain individuals to occupy. In response to a statement concerning Smith's claim sent to Huntington by the hand of Joseph Whitman in 1674, Huntington accused Richard Smith of "most unseemly transgressions, of being a 'currish nabour,' and assured him that he would 'reap due defeat of such demerits.'" But the Fresh Pond - Whitman's Hollow line was established by court decree in 1675, and after surveys in 1872 and 1884, Huntington's entire east line with the towns of Smithtown and Islip was defined as from Fresh Pond to Sumpwams River and thence to the sea.
On 13 April 1656 "Richard Smith of Midleburough sells to Thomas Laurence of Flushing house and six acres in Newtown. Also twenty acres bought from William Washburn. Wits: Joseph Lancton and Thomas Doutch".
On 10 November 1665 Richard Smith of Smithfield made over to his son William Laurence of Flushing rights in the meadow at the head of the fly that once belonged to James Smith. Land granted to Thomas Parsell & to John Alleane 1 April 1678.
On 2 May 1667 "Richard Smith of Smithfield Long Island sells to Richard Smith of Newtown, his rights in the house and lands that did belong to Peter Mecocke in Newtown, with the meadow in front of the lot, and the next lot which was James Smith's. 2 May 1667. Wits: John Cockern and Nathaniel Pettit".
"The Family of Richard Smith of Smithtown, Long Island"
Frederick Kinsman Smith
Smithtown Historical Society, Smithtown, NY, 1967
"Richard Smith was one of the early settlers of Southampton, Long Island, and it was there that we
find the earliest established record of our ancestor, who later became the patentee of Smithtown...
It now appears most probable that he was the Richard Smith who sailed from England 2 Oct. 1635,
aged 22 years, in the ship John...Richard Smith appears to have been one of a group of men, numbering
a half dozen or more, among whom were Edward Howell, Richard Woodhull (called "Odell" in the
Southampton records), Thomas Halsey, and others, who were depended upon to take the lead...The
Southampton records do not afford an explanation of the matter of banishment...it appeared that he had
come to adopt the religious views of the Quakers...From Southampton Richard Smith migrated to the
north side of the Island, probably going directly to Setauket, in Brookhaven...One of the original proprietors
and first settlers of Setauket was Richard Woodhull... Richard Woodhull and Richard Smith were closely
associated in various ways and were probably intimate friends...it was not until 1663 that Lion Gardiner
conveyed to Richard Smith his title to the lands covered by the deed of gift... It does not seem probable that
Richard Smith was married before leaving England. It is more likely that he found his wife in New England.
Sarah, and the tradition has been accepted by many that she was Sarah Folger, but this has not been confirmed
by any record and appears negatived by accepted facts...It is not known when the designation "Bull Rider" or
"Bull Smith" was first used."
"Records of the Town of Smithtown, Long Island, N.Y."
Transcribed by William S. Pelletreau
Huntington, N.Y.: Long-Islander Print, 1898, 569 pgs.
(Includes wills, deeds and other documentation of the "Bull Smiths")
"Wills of the Smith Families of New York and Long Island, 1664-1794"
Pelletreau, William S.
New York: F.P. Harper, 1898, 166 pgs.
p118: Will of Richard Smith and Wife (Sarah); dated 05 Mar 1691/92; proved 02 May 1693
"Rich'd Smith Sen'r deceased at Smithtown on ye 7th day of March Anno Dom. 1691/2..."
p119: Will of Sarah Smith; dated 20 Jan 1707/08
"New England Marriages Before 1700"
Clarence A. Torrey, Baltimore, MD, 1985
(as found on NEHGS CD-ROM, Boston, 2001)
"SMITH, Richard (-1692) & Sarah [FOLGER] (-1708); by 1648(?); Southampton, LI/Setauket, LI/Smithtown, LI"
"Woodhull Genealogy: The Woodhull Family in England and America",
Mary Gould Woodhull and Frances Bowes Stevens,
Henry T. Coates & Co., Philadelphia, PA, 1904
"The ancestor of the "Bull Smith" family of Long Island, was Major Richard Smith, 1st, who came
from England to New England early in the 17th Century, and later settled on Long Island, being the
founder of Smithtown. It is rather amusing to know that the sobriquet of this family of Smiths arose
from the circumstance of an ancestor having trained a Bull to harness, using him instead of a horse.
(See "Antiquities of Long Island," by Gabriel Furman.) "
"Compendium of American Genealogy"
Frederick Adams Virkus
Originally Published: Institute of American Genealogy, Chicago, IL, 1937
Republished: Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore, MD, 1968
Volume VII: Immigrant Ancestors, Page 881
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Smith line from a GEDCOM file posted to RootsWeb by Evelyn Beran [evelyn.beran@charter.net].
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[S227]
The Family of Richard Smith of Smithtown, Long Island. Ten Generations
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[S233]
Huntington-Babylon Town History
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[S234]
Long Island Source Records, taken from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record
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[S235]
Scudder Association Bulletin
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[S242]
New England Marriages Prior to 1700
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