From Massachusetts Roots to a Vermont Homestead

Abraham Smith was born on 27 October 1768 in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the son of Abraham Smith and Lucy Allen.¹ He reached adulthood in the years following the American Revolution, a period shaped for him not by military service, but by marriage, migration, and the establishment of a household.

Abraham Smith Jr.’s adult life is well documented through marriage records, census context, probate files, and Vermont vital records, allowing his life and family to be reconstructed with confidence.

Marriage and Early Family Life

On 9 February 1797, Abraham Smith married Abigail Blanchard in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.² Shortly after their marriage, the couple began moving northward, a pattern common among young New England families seeking land and opportunity in the post-Revolutionary period.

Their first known child, Harriot Louise Smith, was born on 18 May 1798 in Cornish, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, suggesting a brief residence there before the family continued on to Vermont.³ By 1800, Abraham and Abigail had settled permanently in Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont, where Abraham appears as a resident in the 1800 federal census.⁴

Children of Abraham and Abigail Smith

Abraham Smith Jr. and Abigail Blanchard Smith were the parents of several children, documented through a combination of vital records and probate evidence. Their children included:

• Harriot Smith, later Harriot Fuller, wife of Felix Fuller
• Abigail Smith, later Abigail Fuller, wife of Sylvanus Fuller
• Amasa Blanchard Smith, born about 1801 and died in 1808
• Eliza Smith, later Eliza Stiles, wife of David Stiles
• John Allen Smith, born 20 December 1809⁵

The early death of Amasa Blanchard Smith is recorded in Vermont vital records and explains his absence from later probate documents.⁶

Life in Brookfield, Vermont

From about 1800 until his death, Abraham Smith remained in Brookfield. The birthplaces of his younger children, census records, and probate jurisdiction all confirm Brookfield as his permanent residence. He lived there through the early decades of the nineteenth century, participating in the ordinary rhythms of rural Vermont life.

Abraham’s wife Abigail died in 1848.⁷ Abraham Smith himself died sometime before 10 April 1849, when probate proceedings for his estate were initiated in Orange County, Vermont.⁸

The Will and Probate of Abraham Smith

Abraham Smith wrote his will on 6 March 1837 in Brookfield.⁹ This document, together with the probate papers filed after his death, forms the most important body of evidence for understanding his family structure.

In his will, Abraham named his wife Abigail and his surviving children, identifying his daughters by their married names and explicitly associating them with their husbands. He named Harriot Fuller, Abigail Fuller, and Eliza Stiles, along with his son John Allen Smith.¹⁰

The will also made specific provisions for two grandsons, Amasa Austin Smith and Norman Hutton Smith, both explicitly identified as sons of John Allen Smith.¹¹

Two surviving versions of Abraham Smith’s probate file exist, preserved in different clerk’s books. These records represent parallel copies of the same estate proceedings and are consistent in substance, naming the same heirs, executor, and property interests.¹²

Conclusion

Abraham Smith Jr.’s life reflects the experience of a post-Revolutionary New England settler. Born in Massachusetts, briefly passing through New Hampshire, and ultimately establishing himself in Vermont, he represents a generation shaped by migration, family building, and landholding rather than by war.

Through careful examination of vital records and probate documents, Abraham Smith Jr.’s life and family can be reconstructed with confidence. His will, in particular, provides clear and direct evidence of his children and their marriages, anchoring the family structure firmly in the historical record.

Footnotes

1. Worcester, Massachusetts, Town Birth Records; Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988 (Ancestry).
2. Massachusetts Marriages, 1633–1850; Sturbridge marriage records (Ancestry).
3. New Hampshire Birth Records, 1631–1920 (Ancestry).
4. 1800 U.S. Federal Census, Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont (Ancestry).
5. Vermont Vital Records, 1720–1908; Massachusetts and Vermont town records (Ancestry).
6. Vermont Vital Records, death of Amasa Blanchard Smith, 1808 (Ancestry).
7. Vermont Vital Records, death of Abigail (Blanchard) Smith, 1848 (Ancestry).
8. Vermont, Wills and Probate Records, 1749–1999, Orange County, estate of Abraham Smith (d. 1849) (Ancestry).
9. Will of Abraham Smith, dated 6 March 1837, Brookfield, Vermont.
10. Ibid., clauses naming daughters Harriot Fuller, Abigail Fuller, and Eliza Stiles, and son John Allen Smith.
11. Ibid., clauses naming “my grandsons Amasa Austin Smith and Norman Hutton Smith, sons of my son John Allen Smith.”
12. Vermont probate clerk record books, Randolph District, Orange County.

A Man of the Revolutionary Era—But Not a Soldier

Abraham Smith was born on 20 September 1730 in Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a well-established New England town with extensive surviving eighteenth-century vital records.¹ He married Lucy Allen, and together they raised their family during a period that spanned the colonial era, the American Revolution, and the early years of the United States.²

Abraham’s adult life unfolded during the Revolutionary era, but surviving records do not demonstrate that he participated in the war as a soldier. Instead, the documentary evidence places him firmly in civilian life—raising a family, maintaining a household, and later participating in postwar migration patterns common to New England families.

Family and Household

Abraham Smith and his wife Lucy Allen were the parents of several children, including a son also named Abraham, born in 1768 in Worcester County, Massachusetts.³ This younger Abraham—referred to here as Abraham Smith Jr.—is clearly documented as a separate individual who later settled in Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont, where he left an extensive probate record.⁴

By the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, Abraham Smith Sr. was forty-five years old and had dependent children still at home. While men of this age sometimes served, many did not, particularly when responsible for sustaining farms and households, a pattern well documented in New England militia demographics.⁵

Move to Vermont

Following the Revolutionary War, Abraham Smith relocated north to Tinmouth in Rutland County, Vermont. This move aligns with a broader postwar migration pattern, as families from Massachusetts and southern New England moved into Vermont towns newly opened to settlement and formalized governance.⁶

Abraham Smith died in Tinmouth on 4 November 1809.⁷ His death is recorded in Vermont vital records, and his probate proceedings further confirm his residence in Tinmouth at the end of his life.⁸

The Question of Revolutionary War Service

Abraham Smith of Tinmouth has long been attributed Revolutionary War service in at least one early DAR lineage record.⁹ That attribution has been repeated in derivative family trees and secondary sources, despite the lack of supporting contemporary evidence.

The DAR Ancestor Database lists numerous men named Abraham Smith who served during the Revolutionary War, across multiple colonies and states, under different commanding officers and with differing life details.¹⁰ Careful comparison of these service profiles shows that none can be conclusively matched to the Abraham Smith born in Sudbury in 1730 and deceased in Tinmouth in 1809.

Critically, Abraham Smith’s probate file contains no references to military service, land bounties, pensions, arrears of pay, or other benefits commonly associated with Revolutionary War veterans or their heirs.¹¹ No pension application or verified service record has been identified that connects him to wartime service.

Resolving the Misattribution

The Revolutionary War service attributed to Abraham Smith of Tinmouth appears to be the result of name conflation. “Smith” is among the most common surnames in eighteenth-century New England, and Abraham was a frequently used given name. Early lineage applications often relied on incomplete records and did not have access to the full range of probate, census-context, and geographic evidence now available.

Subsequent analysis of birth, marriage, residence, probate, and family structure demonstrates that the military service cited in the early DAR record belongs to other men named Abraham Smith, not to the individual who died in Tinmouth in 1809.

Conclusion

Abraham Smith lived through the Revolutionary era, raised a family during a time of upheaval, and participated in the postwar settlement of Vermont. While he was not a Revolutionary War soldier, his life reflects the experience of many New England civilians whose labor, stability, and family networks sustained their communities before, during, and after the war.

Correcting the historical record does not diminish Abraham Smith’s legacy. Rather, it ensures that his story—and the story of Revolutionary War service—is told accurately and supported by evidence.

Footnotes

1. Sudbury, Massachusetts, town vital records; Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988 (Ancestry).
2. Marriage and family structure inferred from Massachusetts and Vermont vital records and probate context.
3. Massachusetts Town Birth Records; Worcester County birth registers (Ancestry).
4. Vermont, Wills and Probate Records, 1749–1999, Orange County, estate of Abraham Smith (d. 1849) (Ancestry).
5. Massachusetts militia participation patterns discussed in contemporary town and county studies; absence of service-specific documentation for Abraham Smith.
6. Vermont settlement and migration patterns following the Revolutionary War; Rutland County land and town histories.
7. Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont, vital records.
8. Rutland County, Vermont, probate records for Abraham Smith (d. 1809).
9. DAR Ancestor Database, legacy entry for Abraham Smith, ancestor number A104615.
10. DAR Ancestor Search results for “Abraham Smith,” multiple entries with divergent service profiles.
11. Rutland County probate file for Abraham Smith (d. 1809), no military references noted.