950. Benjamin SMITH
(753)(754)
was born on 7 Jan 1658/59 in Barnstable, Cape Cod, MA. He died on 4 Jul
1720 in Edgartown?, Martha's Vineyard, MA. Resident of Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard,
MA.
"... accompanied his family from New Jersey to Sandwich. ... An early mention
of Benjamin in the Sandwich records is found in Freeman (Vol. 2, p. 73) who notes
that it was voted in 1679 'that Shubael Smith be paid £1 for a wolf killed
by his bro. Benj.' Benjamin Smith is called a carpenter in some of the early
records. ... At some point he moved to Martha's Vineyard, as did a number of
other people from Sandwich. He had a grant of land in Edgartown in l684 which
was adjacent to a previous grant of unknown date. Banks thinks it was probably
about a year earlier and that he married Jedidah Mayhew about the same time.
'This alliance became a career for him, and his name dots the records frequently
thereafter. He was attorney for the town in 1687, 1692; commissioner as King's
Attorney for the county [Dukes] in 1691; selectman, 1693, 1696, 1697; county
treasurer, 1698, 1715; representative to the General Court, 1692, 1703; county
commissioner, 1703, 1708, besides doing other less important work in town affairs
up to the last years of his life. Notwithstanding his family associations it
appears that he did not entirely approve of all the things that were done by
his relatives in the government of the island, and in particular the head of
the clan received his private condemnation, although he could not afford open
opposition. From this we may conclude his sense of justice was keen, even if
his strength of character was not enough to apply the corrective.' He died 'suddenly'
4 July 1720." (Hubbard)
He was married to Jedidah MAYHEW after 16 Jun 1684.
951.
Jedidah MAYHEW
(755)(753)
(756)(81) was born in 1656 in
Martha's Vineyard, Dukes Co., MA. She died on 6 Jan 1736 in Edgartown, Martha's
Vineyard, Dukes Co., MA. She was buried in Tower Hill Cemetery, Edgartown, Dukes
Co., MA. The inscription on her gravestone reads:
HERE LYES BURIED
THE BODY OF Mrs.
JEDIDAH SMITH WIFE
TO BENJAMIN SMITH ESQr.
DECd JANry. Ye 6th 1735/6
IN Ye 80th YEAR
OF HER AGE.
[See
Children were:
475 i.
Dorcas SMITH.
ii.
Thomas SMITH was born in May 1697. He died on 13 Apr 1765 in Tisbury, Dukes,
MA. He married Elizabeth Bassett (b. 12 Sep 1699, d. bef Jun 1782, Chilmark,
MA) and they had at least one son, Deacon Ransford Smith. (ref.: Cape Cod Genealogies,
http://www.vineyard.net/vineyard/history/allen/Web%20Cards/WC11/WC11_004.htm)