Note: The following is a section of a family history compiled by Herbert Armstrong Poole between 1905 & 1960, transcribed by AAA Maitland 1998. Subject numbers are HAP's originals. HAP's page divisions are shown: after subject page numbers are complete document page numbers in brackets and issue dates. The original text had generations indented in turn: here, generation numbers are added to each individual: the children of the title subject are "1/--". Subject 280. P1 (264) 2/2/1951 JOHN ROCK SMITH The following is from "The John Rock Smith Family", by Valentine W. Smith, Jamaica, L.l., 1937: from Bunker's Long Island Genealogies: and from "The Descendants of Edward Tredwell", by William A. Robbins, New York, 1911. John Smith's birth date is not known, but it must have been about 1615, as in a deposition he made in 1675, he gave his age as sixty. He died at Merrick, Hempstead, L.I. in 1706: his will was dated May 10/1695, proved April 3/1706. In the same deposition he stated that he got his name "Rock" as a distinction from other Smiths. No reason can be traced for this designation except for a legend that he built a house in New England, with a fire place carved out of a rock inside his house. This designation was used intermittently in the family for four generations. Valentine W. Smith states that there were six distinct Smith families on Long Island, namely, the Weight Smiths, the Rock Smiths, the Blue Smiths, the Tangier Smiths, the Bull Rider Smiths, and the Arthur Smiths. Charles J. Werner gives the following reasons for these designations:- The Weight Smiths possessed the only set of scales and weights: the Blue Smith's ancestor always wore a blue coat on every possible occasion of which he was exceeding1y proud: the Tangier Smiths were descended from Colonel William Smith, Mayor of Tangier, Africa, then a British Colony where he resided before coming to America: Arthur Smith was one of the original proprietors of Brookhaven, L.I. All of these Smiths were originally unrelated. There were two John Smiths originally in Hempstead, known as senior and junior, and it is not known whether they were father and son or not. The first mention of John Rock Smith is in Huntington's History of Stamford, who states that John Jr, and his father John Sr, together with Henry Smith, came to Stamford from Wethersfield, Conn., in the spring of 1640. In that year, a company of dissatisfied and restless men in Wethersfield were anxious to end the contentions and feuds which for four or five years had rendered their home in this colony of Connecticut, including the towns of Windsor and Hartford, comfortless and unprofitable. The reasons for that distracted condition among a band of men who had left England, not six years before, to seek a quiet and peaceful home for themselves, may never be fully known. So decided the Church committee from Watertown, Mass,, who had been sent out into the wilderness, to look after the brethren who had so recently emigrated from their company. So decided also, that princely pioneer among the worthies of that age, the Reverend John Davenport, who had gone up from New Haven to see if fraternal counsel would not restore harmony to that distracted community. They finally decided to remove to Stamford: 28 of them came to Stamford in the summer of 1641. At the end of 1642, both John Smith senior and junior and Henry Smith were residents of Stamford. They were under the leadership of Richard Denton, who had been a minister at Halifax, Yorkshire, England. The colony, not liking the overshadowing influence of the New Haven juris- diction, found a leader in Richard Denton, and in 1644, he removed with them to attempt a new settlement at Manetos, New Netherlands, now Hempstead, under the Dutch government. Denton returned to England in 1659 where he died in 1662, aged 76 years. On arrival at Hempstead, John junior bought land in the extreme westerly part of Hungry Marbor, near Rockaway. He must have been an astute real estate operator for he left properties of many acres at Rockaway, Hempstead, and Little Neck. His farm at Merrick extended from the Merriok or Meadowbrook river on the west, to Cedar Swamp on the east. According to the New York Genealogical & Biographical Record, Vol 30, p 203, John Rock Smith's wife was a daughter of Lieutenant John Subject 280 P2 (265) Strickland, one of Saltonstall's party of emigrants, and one of the first settlers of Hempstead in 1657. The Tredwell Genealogy says his wife's name was Hannah Murry, Issue: 1. John Smith. He was dead by May 20/1690. He had sons Timothy and Richard, and presumably daughter Sarah (who married William Pine) and Mary. 2. Joseph Smith. Bunker says he was married and had a son Joseph. 3. Jonathan Smith. Born before 1650, will dated March 6/1724. He married in 1671, Grace Mott, born about 1653, daughter of Adam an his first wife Jane (Hewlett) Mott, see subject 282, page 3. See subject 140 for issue and further particulars. 4. Mary Smith. She married in 1661, Samuel Denton, born 1632-4, son of the Reverend Richard Denton who owned 240 acres of land in Hempstead. Issue:- 2/1. Samuel Denton, born 1665, will dated February 14/1717, proved May 27/1719 in which he left everything to his wife Abigail. He married, 1st, in 1686, a Mr. Smith: 2nd, Abigail (Barlow) Roeland. He had Joseph, Mary, Deborah, Jemima and Anne, all under age in 1717. 2/2. Mary Denton, born 1668. She married, 1st, in 1684, Peter Smith: 2nd, Jonathan Nostrand. 2/3. James Denton, born 1670, will dated March 7/1713, proved February 3/1723. He married in 1723, Jane Titus, born 1670, daughter of Edmond and Martha (Washburn) Titus and had two children. 2/4. Hannah Denton, born 1673, died August 17/1748. She married in 1695, Capt Thomas Tredwell, born 1670, died 1722, and had Timothy, Elizabeth Halstead, Charity, Hannah Sands, Thomas Star Tredwell, and John. 2/5. Abraham Denton, born 1675. 2/6. Jonas Denton, born 1677. he married in 1690, Jane Seaman, probably daughter of Jonathan and Jane (---) Seaman. 2/7. Phebe Denton, born 1679, died 1728. She married, 1st, in 1699, Richard Thorne: 2nd, Robert Mitchell. Issue:- (by her first husband Richard Thorne) 3/1. Phebe Thorne, born 1701. She married on May 7/1725, Micah Smith, born 1704, died May 1747, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Underhill) Smith. They bad five children. 2/8. Martha Denton, born 1681. She married in 1717, Jonah Halstead, born 1692, died 1762, son of Timothy and Abigail (Carman) Halstead, and had eight children. 2/9. Elizabeth Denton, born 1684. She married in 1709, Jonathan Seaman, who died in 1748, son of Jonathan and Jane (---) Seaman. In 1712 they removed to Kikiat, N.J., and had eleven children. 1/5. Martha Smith. Died before 1695. She married, 1st, as his second wife, Thomas Rushmore born in Wales, England, in 1609, died at Hempstead, L.I,, 1682-3. She married, 2nd, Francis Chappell, town clerk at Hempstead, and had William and Stephen Chappell. See subject 264 for issue and further particulars. 1/6. Hannah Smith. Living in 1706, died probably before her husband. She married, as his second wife, before July 5/1682, John Tredwell, born before December 7/1644, died between January 12/1712 and January 25/1719, son of Edward and Sarah Tredwell of lpswich, Mass., who probably came from Kent, England, in 1637. John had married, 1st, in Long Island, on March 6/1666, Elizabeth Starr, who died before 1682, probably daughter of Thomas Starr of Charlestown, Mass, by whom she had John and Thomas Tredwell. Hannah had no children