Henry SMITH

My Dear & Dutiful Son: I was of so tender an age at the death of my beloved father, that I am po ssessed of but little of the information for which you seek. My revered f ather was an ordained minister of the Gospel, educated at Cambridge in En gland, & came to this land (America) by reason of the Great Persecution b y which the infamous Archbishop Laud and the Black T om Tyrant (refer's t o the Earl of Strafford) die (they?) caused the rei gn of his Majesty, Ch arles the 1st, to loose favor in the sight of the peo ple of England. M y father & mother came over in 1636/37, first to Watertown which is nea r Boston, & after a year or two to Wethersfield on the Gre at River, wher e he became the first settled Pastor. Concerning the early days I can rem ember but little save hardship. My parents had brought both men servant s & maid servants from England, but the maids tarried not but till they g ot married, which was shortly, for there was great scarcity of women in t he Colonies. the men did abide better. One of them had married one of m y mother's maids & they did come with us to Wethersfield, to our great co mfort for some years, until they had many little ones of their own. "I do well remember the face & figure of my honored father. He was 5 fee t and 10 inches tall & spare of build, though not lean. He was as activ e as the Indian men & sinewy. His delight was in sports of strength, & wi th his own hands he did help to rear both our own house & the first meet i ng house of Wethersfield, wherein he preached years too few. He was wel l featured & fresh favoured with fair skin & long curling hair (as nearl y all of us have had) with a merry eye & sweet smiling mouth, though he c ould frown sternly enough when need was." Rev. Smith's will dated 8 May 1648 (he died Aug. 9 1648), mentions his wi fe Dorothy and gives her "full power to dispose of all my estate in house s, lands, cattle and goods whatsoever". At her remarriage, she was direct ed to give son Samuel "that part of my house lot which was intended for m y son Peregrine, lying next to the burying place, and the land I have bey ond the Great River eastward". To Samuel and Noah he left "5 acres a piec e of meadow, with upland proportionable thereunto"; The rest of his child ren are not named in his will, but received 20 pounds each, and the child ren of his two married daughters were given 5 pounds each. According to "Colonial Clergy," Rev. Henry Smith was b. 1588 at Norwich , England; ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough 8 Jun 1623; settled Wat ertown, MS 1636/37; settled Wethersfield 1641-1648 as the first pastor o f t he Church of Christ and died there, 1648

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