I have made it abundantly clear that I did not begin this journey looking for Peter Smith at Round Hill or James Smith living on Bull Run. I wasn’t searching for aristocrats on slave plantations. I thought I would find Peter Smith of Posey, a British soldier under the command of British General Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. I thought it would be cool to verify that this guy helped whip Napoleon at Waterloo before turning into a Midwest farmer charged with raising a large family along the Ohio River. I was hoping I would find a French chateau gifted to the heroic Smith by Wellington; something we could claim for a family retreat along the coast of Brittany. No such luck. Every lead I followed came to a dead end in the Smith Family Cemetery in Cynthiana, Indiana.
And then one day, still thinking I had missed a clue that would prove a Smith helped defeat Napolean, I got that email from the genealogist in the state of Virginia, validating my descent from the Smiths of Westmoreland County, Virginia and Round Hill NC. The Smith researcher in Virginia had found my early entries on Ancestry.com. She was happy to have found someone, namely me, descended from Lebanon Smith. She could not believe anyone would name their child Lebanon. “Who would name a child Lebanon? Such an odd thing to do to a child?”
She had Leb in her tree long before I ever posted my own tree. She had known of his time on earth for some time but did not know of his children or grandchildren. She even assumed the name might be a misprint or juvenile prank foisted by someone trolling in family trees. I assured her that Lebanon was real and quite a character and that he had a terrific family, all of whom had what she would consider normal names: Margaret, Robert, William and James.
She was equally interested in my grandmother Mary Hughes and her Irish lineage. Leb and Mary were as elusive to some, as the horde of Peter Smiths had been for me. She assured me that I evolved from folks in Westmoreland County, Virginia, whose lives in the new world began somewhere around 1651. And yes, Peter Smith of Round Hill and Peter of Yeocomico were great grandfathers to a whole lot of descendants, including me.
Gen 9: Peter Smith of Yeocomico (1663-1741)
Father’s 5x Great Grandfather, Yeocomico River, Nominy Forest, Westmoreland County VA
The best place to begin with Peter of Yeocomico is on his deathbed. His Last Will and Testament allows us the greatest insight into his life as a pioneer in the Colony of Virginia. Sadly, the deathbed is often the one place that yields the greatest amount of information related to an ancestor’s life.
Peter Smith knew in 1738 that his days were numbered. While his will was dated January 10, 1738, it was submitted to probate court on April 28, 1741, and recorded for posterity on May 12, 1741. Historians agree: Peter died in 1741. His birth year is subject to wide debate. We will get to that controversy later. I have chosen to include his entire will as an attachment to this collection so you can capture the moment for yourself. I will summarize it for you. I have read through it countless times looking for clues that may have slipped past previous research efforts. I was intent on finding his parents and the name of his wife. Any clue would help.
Peter left an extensive will outlining his property, his children and desire to be with God in Heaven. He identified his sons and daughters and some grandchildren by name. He provided insight as to who had already passed away, where some lived and who some had married. A decent, articulate will can resolve a lot of issues when tackling the questions of lineage. Wills can also introduce a few issues and raise a few eyebrows along the way.
Let’s begin with the issue I find most frustrating: his wife was not mentioned in the will. When that occurs, genealogists assume the wife has already died, predeceased the spouse, died, met her maker and gone from the Earth. That she is not mentioned in the will is too bad for those among us who want to find Peter’s wife. The will is one place where a person can usually lock down the identity of a spouse. Equally unfortunate, when a wife’s name does appear in a will it often appears only as a first name, with no mention of her maiden name. The folks in the courthouse usually knew the family by name and so a husband often referred to ‘my wife,’ assuming the clerk knew her name. This reflects a touch of Cavalier chauvinism.
The wife was frequently the loser in her husband’s will. The properties often went to the children. The wife may get her bed, bedding and a calf named Bennie, a slave or two referred to as ‘negro man’ or ‘negra woman.’ The oldest son usually received the main plantation and a fair share of the slaves. The next several sons acquired lesser allotments of land and daughters were considered covered by the dowry dad laid out at the time of her first marriage. Minor children were often identified as orphans (despite the fact mother was still alive) and placed in the care of loving uncles or reverent members of the local church.
The oldest brother had taken over dad’s estate in Kent or Cornwall and the younger brothers were sent off on their own, with some start up cash from dad’s wallet. There were good reasons for putting the land in the hands of the oldest son. It insured that the bulk of the estate would stay in the family and with the family name. We saw that with the Taylor family.
If a man left his estate to his wife, the land and accompanying wealth could easily fall into the hands of her next husband. Widows were quickly snapped up by the next available male and unscrupulous men were eager to marry into wealth. Our tree contains several such marriages. Rare was the woman who remained single after losing her husband. A woman who was widowed was soon dependent on her sons for survival and would, within a year, frequently flee that circumstance and take her chances on the next prospective mate. We will find some incredible hookups as we go, descending into famous names, financial scandals, dynasty formation, prostitution, mysterious deaths and kidnapping.
To each of his sons (James, Thomas and William) our Peter Smith of Yeocomico, gave 325 acres of land in Prince William County, Virginia. He was subdividing his estate (the 1100-acre property at Bull Run). Within a year, on June 19, 1742, Fairfax County was formed from Prince William and Loudoun Counties. The Prince William County land Peter Smith had left these three sons was then considered to be in Truro Parish, Fairfax County. Such political boundary changes were made in efforts to resolve governance issues in the expanding colony. As more people moved into a given region, more layers of government were added, and services expanded.
The Children of Peter Smith of Yeocomico
While the name of Peter’s wife is not mentioned in his will, we know he was the father of ten children: 1) Peter, Jr. married Sarah Baker, 2) Ann married Hugh Thomas, 3) William married Letitia Hancock, 4) John married Mary Adkins, 5) Mary Elizabeth married John Fleming, 6) Hannah married George Lamkin III and a John Ware, 7) Our 4x GGF James married Elizabeth Presley Taylor, 8) Thomas married Elizabeth Fleming, 9) Martha married William McClanahan, and 10) Abigail married William Fleming. We descend from James and Elizabeth. They are the parents of Peter Smith of Round Hill Plantation in Caswell County, North Carolina.
There are several iconic American heroes hidden in the above-mentioned marriages that we will unveil as we travel through time. The Fleming kids descended from Pocahontas. True. And the marriage of Martha Smith and William McClanahan will eventually produce Chief Justice John Marshall. Thomas Smith will employ an attorney, George Mason, and together they will craft language found in the Bill of Rights, that protects religious freedom.
There are two children who predeceased their father Peter: John Smith and his sister, Ann Smith Thomas. The language “I give to the heirs of” reveals the passing of each family member. While the “heirs of my son John Smith” and “the heirs of my Daughter Anne Thomas” are not mentioned by name, we know they are Peter’s grandchildren and that each is entitled to one-shilling sterling money (a valuable British coin). One grandchild is identified by name in this will: “my Grand Daughter Anne Bailey.” The mention of Anne grabbed my attention and raised my curiosity. That little peach, Anne Bailey, caused me to develop a wide assortment of hypotheses.
This Anne Bailey had a father with the surname Bailey. He is not mentioned in the will. This Anne was Peter’s granddaughter. Was she named after her grandmother? A great aunt?
The Wife of Peter Smith of Yeocomico?
The search for Peter Smith’s parents and the identity of his wife have been important to me. I have felt this need to find them, to accurately identify them and place them back where they belong in the family. It is as if they have been lost and are wondering about in the Cosmos looking for a Waffle House, a Costco or just a free month of Netflix. I have invested a lot of time and energy, and yes, I have consumed a lot of Scotch. In fact, I have drained the single malt collection at this point and resorted to the blended scotch found in the cellar where I hid them years ago, when I was pretentious enough to think I should never taste them. I have digested every bit of information (and several boxes of Captain Crunch) trying to make sense out of the records, the online discussions, emails and the variety of data available. In the process I have had to sort through a lot of fake news, false leads and misinformation.
There are some among my fellow ‘genealogists’ whose work suffers from anal retentiveness and an attention to detail, integrity and honesty that borders on picayune. They are adamant in saying, “We don’t know the name of Peter of Yeocomico’s wife,” and I agree. We don’t know for sure. Others have had no problem plunking Peter of Yeocomico into a relationship with Mary Bayley, or Anne Bayley, Elizabeth Little, or a ‘Margrett’ mentioned in the will of Peter’s brother, Uncle James Smith (1706). Several folks have attached ‘Margrett’ to the Martine (Martiau) family, direct ancestors of George Washington. I think they claim the Martiau connection hoping to secure free use of the elevator in the Washington Monument.
Several different volumes, written in the past fifty years have analyzed this topic to death. As for me, I have penciled in Mary Bayley as a wife of Peter Smith. I have not ruled out the fact that Peter may have had more than one wife over the years. While divorce was not common at the time, death was. Folks lost spouses for a variety of reasons back in the day and it was not unusual to find someone praying at a grave site one day and marrying shortly thereafter. It was a survival technique and frequently a good source of income, wealth and credibility.
My reason for choosing Mary Bayley, with so many other choices available is simple. She came to me one night as I was sleeping, in the early Autumn of 2016. It went something like this:
Mary Bayley: “Steve Smith? You’re the guy piecing the family tree together, right?”
Me: “I’m that guy. Who are you?”
Mary: “I’m Mary Bayley, the wife of Peter Smith of Yeocomico. “
Me: “You’re Peter’s wife?”
Mary: “I was until some hot shot genealogist from Baltimore threw me into bed with one of the Fontaine boys. I can’t live like this. You must help me. I want my husband back. This guy they insisted was my husband is hell to live with!”
Me: “Look, Mary, I am just some hapless old man, dithering away with a family tree in my old age. I doubt very much that I can help you.”
Mary: “You can, and you will. And if you do this for me, I will make sure Kyle Schwarber is ready to return to the Chicago Cubs lineup in time to win the 2016 World Series.”
Me: “You can do that?”
Mary: “Watch me.”
Me: “And if I don’t put you into the family tree?”
Mary: “You’re a Packer fan, right?”
Me: “Yes.”
Mary: “Aaron Rodgers is the greatest thing ever. Right? Well. Do you know how important a collar bone is to a quarterback’s effectiveness as a passer?”
Me: “Got it. Okay. I will plug you into my tree tomorrow.”
Mary: “You will do it now or you will hear nothing but Justin Bieber from this point on.”
Me: “You could do that?”
At that moment my radio speakers inexplicably began looping Bieber. It was worse than being Rick Rolled. I immediately added Mary Bailey as Peter’s wife to my online family tree. The rest is history. Somehow, miraculously, Kyle Schwarber was healthy enough in the fall of 2016 to rejoin the Cubs lineup in their World Series matchup with the Cleveland Indians. He provided the spark as the Cubs won the championship.
Two nights later my sleep was interrupted again by Mary Bailey.
Mary: “Hey. You spelled it wrong.”
Me: “Spelled what wrong?”
Mary: “My surname, Bayley. You spelled it wrong. You spelled it B a i l e y.”
Me: “How did you spell it?”
Mary: “You mean how DO I spell it? I’m still here, right? Use the present tense.”
Me: (feeling very confused) “How DO you spell it, Mary?”
Mary: “B A Y L E Y”
Me: “I will make those changes when I wake up.”
Mary: “You will be waking up NOW.”
My dream was immediately interrupted by Justin Bieber singing Despacito long before his version of the song was released in the marketplace (April 2017).
Me: “What the heck was that?”
Mary: “A Canadian doing a Latin number. Bizarro! Right? A reminder that I can make your life a living hell. You will hear it next year. It will be very popular.”
There are legitimate reasons for my decision to install Mary Bailey Bayley as Peter’s wife. Let’s begin with the surname: Bayley. There are at least three spellings of the name found: Bayly, Bayley and Bailey. The surname is found as a first and middle name among our ancestors. The iconic William Bailey Smith is an example. His parents, James and Jemima Smith, pulled that name Bailey from somewhere other than the Books of the Bible, because ‘Bailey’ is not found in the Bible. I am willing to bet James Smith had a mother whose maiden name was Bailey. Or Bayly, or Bayley…and he gave that name to his son, William Bailey Smith. As pointed out earlier, the Presley surname was used as a first and middle name in many 18th Century Smith families and is also spelled in a variety of ways. The surname Smith also occurs among cousins as a first and middle name over the centuries.
The Bayley family was a prominent name in the Westmoreland neighborhood in which Peter of Yeocomico first settled. A gentleman by the name of Stephen Bayley of Kinsale, Westmoreland, left a will dated December 8, 1696, in which he identified his two daughters, Anne and Mary as Smiths. Kinsale was a village in the Nominy Forest and Nominy River Basin in which Peter Smith resided. Stephen Bailey Jr witnessed Peter’s Last Will and Testament. Stephen was probably the father of Peter’s grand daughter, Anne, named as such in Peter’s will.
Finally, it was decision time: Stephen Bayley Sr of Kinsale had two daughters, Mary and Ann, each of whom married a Smith. I chose the young lady whose birth year was closest to Peter’s purported birth year. I admit the premise for that choice is weak. But in the interest of sleeping through the night and hearing less of Justin Bieber, I went with Mary and chose to spell it BAYLEY, as found in her father’s will.
I understand why compatriots in this Ancestor Game make the choices they make when they ignore Mary and embrace Elizabeth Little, for example. It can be very confusing.
PETER SMITH’S LAND ACQUISITIONS
