B. before 4 Oct 1635 in Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, England1
M. (1) before 13 Jun 1660 in (probably) Connecticut2
Wife: Hannah Adams
M. (2) 1 Jan 1664 in Saybrook, Connecticut3
Wife: Martha Bushnell
D. after 24 Apr 1711 in (probably) Connecticut2
In the early days of the colony of Connecticut, many of the towns around Hartford formed a tight community. And when a person became sick, they just might have gotten treated by the governor. Such was the case with Jonathan Smith during the prime of his life.
Jonathan was born in the heart of England, in a small village in Leicestershire called Husbands Bosworth. His parents were Richard Smith and Rebecca Buswell, and he was the seventh of their eight children. Jonathan was baptized on October 4, 1635,1 and was likely born shortly before that date.
Sometime after Jonathan's younger sister was baptized in January 1638,1 the family migrated to New England. It’s believed that the Smith family arrived in the Connecticut colony in about 1639 or 1640. This was near the end of the Great Migration, a time when Puritans in England sought to create a religious haven in America. By 1646, Jonathan’s parents settled in the town of Wethersfield, right next to Hartford.2 This was where he came of age, and where he married a woman named Hannah Adams by June of 1660.2
The governor of Connecticut at this time was John Winthrop, Jr., the son of one of the founders of the Massachusetts colony. Governor Winthrop also served as an unlicensed doctor, and the journal he kept while treating patients has survived. He would travel from town to town with remedies of herbs, powders, and such things as “pulverized toads.”4 The population of the colony was about 5,000 people, and it’s been said that Winthrop gave medical care to 500 of them, one of whom was Jonathan. The medical journal showed that he was treated for unknown reasons on four occasions: April 19, 1658, January 13, 1659, June 30, 1660, and February 12, 1667.5 The entry for 1660 also included Jonathan’s wife, Hannah, and it was the only time she was mentioned in records; she died by the end of 1663.3
Meanwhile, Jonathan involved himself in issues of the community. On August 17, 1658, his name was on a petition signed by 49 men and women of Wethersfield, including his father and two of his brothers.6 Jonathan was among 38 of the signers who were not members of the church (his father was). The petition was about a man named John Hollister who had been excommunicated, and the signers thought he had been treated unfairly. They blamed the minister who had been assigned to Wethersfield, a Reverend John Russell, and asked that they could chose another minister to replace him. The effort was successful, and Reverend Russell was ousted.
In 1662, Jonathan’s father (who was still living) gave him “all his real estate in Wethersfield,” said to be the Smith family homestead.2 Not long after this, Jonathan remarried to Martha Bushnell, with the wedding taking place in her hometown of Saybrook on New Year’s Day 1664.3 They settled in Wethersfield, presumably in the home his father had given him. It was here that Jonathan’s first six children were born between 1664 and 1679. They lived for a few years at Middletown, where two more children were born, before finally moving to a place called Naubuc, which became Glastonbury in 1690.
Late in his life, Jonathan played a civic role in Glastonbury, becoming one of 34 men who petitioned for a new meetinghouse.6 After the church was established, he served as deacon;2 he also put in nine years as deputy on the town council.2 As he reached the end of his life, Jonathan followed his father’s example of dividing his land among his children. The last document showing this dispersal was dated April 24, 1711.2 It’s likely that Jonathan passed away within a few years of this date. His second wife was thought to have died in about 1705.
Children (all by Martha Bushnell):
1. Jonathan Smith — B. 20 Nov 1664, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 D. 8 Apr 1735, Middletown, Connecticut;2 M. Alice Leek (1664-?), 25 Dec 1695, Middletown, Connecticut2
2. Richard Smith — B. 1 Nov 1667, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 D. before 6 Jun 1749, Glastonbury, Connecticut2
3. Joseph Smith — B. 14 Oct 1672, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 M. Sarah House (1675-?), 2 Jan 1696, Glastonbury, Connecticut2
4. Martha Smith — B. 14 Nov 1674, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 D. Connecticut;2 M. Joseph Long (1668-?)2
5. Ebenezer Smith — B. 18 Mar 1676, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 D. 10 Feb 1752, Haddam, Massachusetts;2 M. Mary2
6. Gershom Smith — B. Nov 1679, Wethersfield, Connecticut;2 D. 28 Aug 1747, Glastonbury, Connecticut;2 M. Hannah Judd (1681-?), 4 May 1710, Glastonbury, Connecticut2
7. Deborah Smith — B. 23 Sep 1682, Middletown, Connecticut2
8. Francis Smith — B. about 1685, Middletown, Connecticut;2 D. after 1749;2 M. Hannah Hubbard (1690-?), 8 Feb 17112
Sources:
1 “Isaac Buswell and Rebecca (Buswell) Smith of Husbands Bosworth, Co. Leicester, and New England,” NEHGR, V.158, Jan 2004 Vital Records of Saybrook, 1647-1834, 1952
2 “Richard Smith of Wethersfield,” Donald Lines Jacobus, The American Genealogist, V. 25, 1949The History of Wethersfield, Connecticut, Sherman W. Adams, 1904
3 “The Doubtful English Ancestry of Richard Smith of Wethersfield, Connecticut,” Gale Ion Harris, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, V. 143, Jul 1989
4 The New England Historical Society (website)
5 John Winthrop, Jr., Winthrop Medical Journal, (Transcribed from microfilms of the original)
6 Glastenbury for Two Hundred Years: A Centennial Discourse, Alonzo Bowen Chapin, 1853
