1. Nathaniel Bradford of Accomack County, Virginia - Lower ...

In Adventures of Purse and Person, it is suggested that Nathaniel was Richard Smith’s step-son based on
Richard’s will, in which he mentions Nathaniel as his son-in-law while referring to Alice by her maiden
name 37 . The theory is that Richard had Alice by an earlier wife and, after that wife’s death, Richard
remarried another woman who was the widow of Nathaniel’s natural father. Aside from the fact that in the
seventeenth century the term son-in-law was sometimes used to indicate a step relationship, this argument
rests entirely on Richard Smith’s use of Alice’s maiden name in his will. In fact, further interpretation
suggests that Alice and Nathaniel were already married when Richard Smith wrote his will. Richard gave
his 500-acre home plantation to Nathaniel, but stipulated that the inheritance was to run in the line of Alice
Smith and her children. In case Alice died without issue, the plantation was to be held by Nathaniel during
his lifetime but then to go to Richard’s other daughter Susan. One wonders why Richard would have
granted the land to Nathaniel if it was destined to be owned by the heirs of Alice by some other man, heirs
who would have to wait until Nathaniel’s death to claim their inheritance. Furthermore, Richard Smith did
not fail to provide for his daughter Susan, who received 450 acres; it is hard to imagine him not providing
for his other daughter. But the critical factor undermining the theory found in Purse and Person is the fact
that Richard Smith does not provide for Alice, only for her heirs, and that he provides for her heirs out of
the very same land he granted to Nathaniel. The fact that Nathaniel and Alice’s first known child was
baptized a little over a year after the will’s proving makes it seem even more likely that they were married
when it was written, though they probably wed not long before.
Richard Smith of Occahannock, the father of Alice and Susan Smith, is identified in Purse and Person as
the Richard Smith who came to Virginia aboard the London Merchant in March 1620 38 and who was at
James City in both the census of 1623/4 and the muster of 1624/5. 39 He must have lived through the
massacre of 1622, and appears to have moved in the 1630s to Accomack, 40 where he served as sheriff in
1641 41 and as churchwarden in 1648. 42 As late as May 1642 he does not seem to have been married or had
any children, if he may be identified as the same Richard Smith who told Luke Stubbins that he would
leave his entire estate to William Fisher. 43 If this latter man is Richard Smith of Occahannock, it means his
daughters were born after 1642. Since Alice was probably at least 16 when she married Nathaniel in 1659
or 1660, this may mean she was born between 1642 and 1644. It is at least clear that Richard was married
by November 1648, when his wife Susanna Smith appeared in court to grant a calf to her godson. 44 I must
emphasize that the conclusion about Alice’s birth year rests entirely on her father being the same man
whose deathbed bequests were witnessed by Luke Stubbins in 1642. In fact, there were at least two
Richard Smiths in Accomack in the 1640s and 1650s and it is not always clear which records are referring
to the man who would become Nathaniel’s father-in-law. 45
In 1652, Richard’s wife Susanna was in court over an altercation. Mary Cornelius, a witness, described the
scene for the court:
“. . . about the month of April last past the wife of Elias Hartrey and Susanna the wife of Rich.
Smyth (being at the house) Jane the wife of the said Elias Hatrey asked [me] (if [I] had any money
to lend her to pay the turnip woman) where upon Susanna Smyth (having a jug with beer in her
hand) did throw the beer in her face, then the said Jane Hatrey did draw her knife, but they were
kept asunder by the people in the house, as namely Henry Armitradeing and his wife, and this
dep’t never the less (as they were keeping them from harming each other) Richard Smyth’s wife
did reach over their shoulders and strike Elias Hatrey’s wife over the face, and having persuaded
them for the space of half an hour (or there abouts) the wife of Elias Hatrey going forth, did
suddenly strike Susanna Smyth . . . over the face and then for quietness sake we did persuade
Susanna Smyth to depart the house. . .” 46
Another witness, Jane Safforde, provided the additional detail that Susanna, after hurling the beer in Jane
Hatrey’s face, called her a “porky whore,” and that “thou hadest rotted long ago had it not been for Clarke
the surgeon.” Clearly the “turnip woman” comment struck a nerve with Susanna, and it is unfortunate that
we have little idea as to the nature of the insult or why it aroused such a violent reaction.
Richard Smith’s other daughter, Susan, married Robert Richardson by 1666 and they moved to Maryland in
the early 1670s. 47 Some of their descendants may be found under the Richard Smith chapter in Volume III
of Adventures of Purse and Person.
Page 10 of 74 Copyright 2008 Adam M. Bradford