The Smith Family and Sybil Smith Wood (1759 - 1852)
Marian and Agnes Wilder were the daughters of
James Lewellyn Wilder, the son of
Francis L. Wilder, the son of
Hadassah Thompson Wilder, the daughter of
Mary "Polly" Wood Thompson the daughter of
Sybil Smith Wood was the daughter of
Captain Robert Smith, the son of
James Smith of Ballykelly, Northern Ireland
and
Marian and Agnes Wilder were the daughters of
James Lewellyn Wilder, the son of
Francis L. Wilder, the son of
Hadassah Thompson Wilder, the daughter of
Mary "Polly" Wood Thompson the daughter of
Sybil Smith Wood, the daughter of
Rachel Smith Smith, the daughter of
Robert Smith, the son of
Asahel Smith, the son of
Robert and Susannah Smith, of Hampton, New Hampshire
The Smiths of Needham and Dedham, Massachusetts were ancestors of James Lewellyn Wilder. Sybil Smith Wood, the wife of Silas Wood, was the last Smith in our family ancestry, dying in the early 1850's in Maine. Sybil Smith was the great great grandmother of James Lewellyn Wilder. This page provides links to documents and images about the Smith family. The links are provided chronologically backwards from most present.
Smith Family of Needham, MA Timeline
This link shows the James Smith House in Needham, Massachusetts. James Smith was James Lewellyn Wilder's great great great great grandfather. He brought his young family to America from Northern Ireland about the year 1718, settling in Needham around 1727, the year he built this house. The James Smith House still exists and is on the National Register of Historic Buildings.
The James Smith House, 1727, Needham, Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has created an extensive architectural inventory of colonial structures that are still in existence. Among them is a fascinating document relating to the James Smith house of Needham, linking it to Captain Robert Smith--one of James Smith's sons and the father of Sybil Smith Wood. Here is the link:
James Smith House Architectural Inventory and Biography
The following document is a transcript of the will of Sybil Smith Wood, the widow of Silas Wood, and the daughter of Captain Robert Smith and Rachel Smith Smith. The will is from 1851, and the final inventory is from 1853, which I assume means that she died sometime between these two dates. Sybil was born in Needham, Massachusetts and married Silas Wood about 1784. They moved to Norridgewock, Maine that year, and lived there for the rest of the life of Silas. After his death, Sybil apparently moved to Chesterville, Maine, and lived with a granddaughter and her family. In this transcript, there is a mention of a writing table being willed to her great grandson, Francis L. Wilder, who was the father of James Lewellyn Wilder, and the grandfather of Marian and Agnes Wilder. The writing table may be the "sewing table" which is in the possession of Tim McMurdo. According to family tradition, the sewing table was from Norridgewock. It's possible that it was the work of Silas Wood, who was a cabinet and furniture maker all of his life.
The Will and Final Inventory of Possessions of Sybil Smith Wood of Norridgewock, Maine
The Wilder Family Sewing Table, probably from either the Thompson Family or the Wood family of Norridgewock, Maine. Family tradition is that this table was from Norridgewock. It seems possible that it is the writing desk mentioned in Sybil Smith Wood's will of 1850, that was given to her great grandson, Francis L. Wilder, through whom the desk has been handed down. The desk is believed to predate 1820. There is speculation that it was the work of Sybil Smith Wood's husband, Silas Wood, a cabinet maker who learned his trade in the Concord Massachusetts shop of his uncle, Joseph Hosmer. Hosmer is considered an important early American furniture maker.
This link is to a declaration given by Sibyl Smith Wood in 1838 at Norridgewock, explaining her relationship to Silas Wood, her husband, in her effort to gain Revolutionary War Widow's benefits. The document mentions Silas Wood's service, her birth place, their early marriage, and the births of her two children, Abel Wood and Polly Wood. Polly Wood married Asaph Thompson, and was the mother of Hadassah Thompson Wilder, the mother of Francis L. Wilder. Polly Wood is the "Polly Thompson" stitched on a sampler from 1820 in the possession of the Hill Family.
Declaration for Revolutionary War Widow's Benefits by Sybil Smith Wood, 1838
Here are new additions to the Revolutionary War Application of Sibyl Smith Wood's Pension Application, added 2015.
Pension Papers of Sibyl and Silas Wood of Norridgewock, Maine
This link shows a court document from Norridgewock, Maine written in August of 1835, noting that the court journals of Oliver Wood of Norridgewock had been given (presumably around the time of his death) to his daughter in law, Sybil Smith Wood. Two of the journals are known to exist, and are in the possession of the Maine Historical Society. There also apparently was a diary that had belonged to Oliver Wood, which recorded his French and Indian War experiences among other things. This diary was excerpted from in one of the two books written about Norridgewock in 1849. Its location is not known.
Reference to Sybil Smith Wood being in Possession of Oliver Wood's Journals in 1835
This link is to the book "Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America" by Charles Knowles Bolton, 1910, with references to Sybil Smith's grandfather, James Smith, of Bally Kelley, Ireland, who immigrated to Needham, Massachusetts with his wife Mary and family.
References to the early experience of James Smith and family in Massachusetts
Link showing the headstone of Sybil Smith Wood, located in Norridgewock, Maine, next to her husband, Capt. Silas Wood.
Link showing the headstone of Rachel Smith Smith, the mother of Sybil Smith Wood. Rachel Smith, born in Dedham, Massachusetts was the wife of Captain Robert Smith of Needham, Massachusetts. She died in 1825 at age 90. Her headstone is decorated with a weeping willow, a common headstone motif of the early 1800's. Rachel Smith was the daughter of Robert Smith and Judith Heslop Smith of Dedham, Massachusetts, and was a descendant of Robert and Susannah Smith, among the founders of Hampton, New Hampshire in the early 1600's.
Headstone of Rachel Smith Smith
Captain Robert Smith was the husband of Rachel Smith Smith, the father of Sybil Smith Wood, and the great great great grandfather of James Lewellyn Wilder. He held several civic positions in Needham Massachusetts in his life, and commanded the East Needham Company of Militia during the Battle of Concord, his troops being heavily engaged with the British army at the village of Menotomy, near Boston, towards the end of the day. Robert Smith was the son of Irish immigrant James Smith, and was raised and possibly born in the James Smith House described below.
For many years, a row of elm trees at this property was a local landmark in Needham. Local tradition said that Captain Robert Smith had planted the trees.
Headstone of Captain Robert Smith
James Smith was the father of Captain Robert Smith, the grandfather of Sybil Smith Wood and the great grandfather of Polly Wood Thompson of Norridgewock, Maine. He immigrated with his family from Bally Kelly, Northern Ireland around 1718 to Boston, settling eventually in Needham, Massachusetts, where he built the James Smith House around 1727. James Smith died in May of 1754 and is buried in the Needham, Massachusetts Cemetery.
A confusing element of this part of the family is that both of Sybil Smith Wood's parents had the last name of Smith. Her father, Captain Robert Smith, was the son of James Smith, originilly of Ballykelly, Ireland. Her mother, Rachel (Rachal) Smith, was descended from another Robert Smith, an immigrant from England in the 1630's, who eventually settled in Hampton, New Hampshire. This link is to a deposition that Robert Smith and his wife Susannah gave against a local old woman, Eunice Cole, who had been accused of practicing witchcraft. Robert and Susannah Smith testified that Eunice had bewitched their oven, resulting in bread that couldn't be eaten.
Robert Smith's Deposition against Goodwife Cole for Witchcraft
John Johnson was an ancestor of Sybil Smith Wood from her mother's side. He was a member of the "Great Migration" of Puritans from England to Massachusetts in 1630. He was a friend or confidant (or perhaps, both) of John Winthrop, as he was executor of John Winthrop's estate. The link below provides information about the life of Johnson.