Individual Details
John Smith Jr.
(1615 - 1706)
John came to America prior to 1640. John "Rock" Smith moved to Stamford, CT 1644 then to Hempstead Long Island New York. He was an Inn keeper and a judge.
From an old publication on Long Island Antiquities, we find this interesting story of how the "Rock" became part of the Smith name: "Upon this island and especially in the central portions of it are very many families of the name of Smith. So numerous did they become that it was necessary to distinguish the various original members by some particular name. Thus we have the Rock Smiths, the Blue Smiths, the Weight Smiths, and the Tangier Smiths. Of the Rock Smiths, there are two distinct families, one who originally settled between Rockaway and Hempstead, some ten or fifteen years before the settlement of the first white inhabitant in Setauket, who derived their name from their contiguity to Rockaway; and the other located themselves in Brookhaven and obtained their appellation from their ancestor erecting his dwelling against a large rock which still remains on the highway of that town. These different appellations of the families of the Smiths became as firmly settled as if they were regular family names; so that when any inquiry was made of any person on the road, man woman or child, for any particular Smith, they would at once ask whether he was of the Rock breed, the Bull breed, etc. If the person desiring the information could say which breed, he at once was told of his residence."
Sue Montgomery Cook's website (dentongenealogy.org) lists John Smith's wife as Elizabeth Gildersleeve. I am using "Colonial Ancestors" by Evylene Anderson Canup as my source for John Smith's wife being Mary Strickland.
From an old publication on Long Island Antiquities, we find this interesting story of how the "Rock" became part of the Smith name: "Upon this island and especially in the central portions of it are very many families of the name of Smith. So numerous did they become that it was necessary to distinguish the various original members by some particular name. Thus we have the Rock Smiths, the Blue Smiths, the Weight Smiths, and the Tangier Smiths. Of the Rock Smiths, there are two distinct families, one who originally settled between Rockaway and Hempstead, some ten or fifteen years before the settlement of the first white inhabitant in Setauket, who derived their name from their contiguity to Rockaway; and the other located themselves in Brookhaven and obtained their appellation from their ancestor erecting his dwelling against a large rock which still remains on the highway of that town. These different appellations of the families of the Smiths became as firmly settled as if they were regular family names; so that when any inquiry was made of any person on the road, man woman or child, for any particular Smith, they would at once ask whether he was of the Rock breed, the Bull breed, etc. If the person desiring the information could say which breed, he at once was told of his residence."
Sue Montgomery Cook's website (dentongenealogy.org) lists John Smith's wife as Elizabeth Gildersleeve. I am using "Colonial Ancestors" by Evylene Anderson Canup as my source for John Smith's wife being Mary Strickland.
Events
| Birth | 1615 | England | |||
| Death | 1706 | Hempstead, Queens Co., New York |  | ||
| Alt name | John Rock Smith |
Families
| Spouse | Mary Strickland ( - ) |
| Child | Hewlett Smith ( - 1724) |
| Child | John Smith ( - 1684) |
| Child | Joseph Smith ( - ) |
| Child | Martha Smith ( - 1694) |
| Child | Richard Smith ( - ) |
| Child | Timothy Smith ( - ) |
| Child | Mary Smith (1640 - 1713) |
| Child | Jonathan Smith (1650 - ) |
| Child | Hannah Smith (1662 - ) |
| Father | John Smith Sr. (1595 - ) |
Endnotes
1. ahnentafel report from Sue Cook.