George Burntface Smith Clan in America

It is believed that George “Burntface” Smith was born on January 1, 1688 and that he was a coaler who came over as an Indentured Servant around 1709. He worked off his debt to William Byrd II by managing his coal mines.

William Byrd II

Below are a few of Byrd’s entries about my g-g-g-g-g-grandfather.

• • • • June 15, 1709 “While at dinner Captain M-r-n came with some more letters. He brought me a coaler recommended me by Colonel Blakiston.

       

      • July 18, 1709 “…. that the coaler found the coal mine very good and sufficient to furnish several generations”

       

      • Aug 18, 1709 “From hence Isham Randolph and I proceeded to Falling Creek, where I found all well and had the pleasure to hear that my coaler had recovered….”

       

    • • Dec 23, 1710 “George the coaler came likewise from the coal-pit and told me all was well there.”

       

    • • June 29, 1711 “George Smith came from Manakin Town and told me all was well at the coalpit and Falling Creek.”

       

    • • June 30, 1711 “I rose at 5 o’clock and settled accounts with George Smith….”

       

    • • “About 8 o’clock came Mr G-r-l and George Smith by whom I learned all was well at Falling Creek and the coal-pit.”

     

As you can see George was his “coaler” in charge of his “coal-pit” and the assumed reason for his nickname “Burntface.”

He married Anne Bailey in 1716 in Goochland County Virginia. The Baileys too had been here for some time and the Bailey surname would be used in later Smith generations as a middle name.

He was listed as a tithable for the Huguenot’s King William Parish as early as 1714, five years after he arrived in Virginia, which may indicate his service period. He remained in the parish until his death.

Their first child, Thomas, was born on December 29, 1719 followed by James in 1720.

Colonial Map of Goochland and Henrico Counties in Virginia

George was granted 367 1/2 acres of land on a branch of Jones Creek known by the name of Chastain’s Branch for 40 shillings on September 5, 1723. This land was in the Manakin Town area and near Sabot’s Island.

George and Anne would have:

• Another son named William born in 1727
• A daughter named Ann born in 1728
• And a final son named George born in 1736

By the time he died in either 1740 or 1744, he had accumulated considerable land and substance.

Thomas Smith was able to leave each of his six children a fine farm and a considerable number of slaves. He and his family were originally members of the Church of England, but when Methodism was introduced into Virginia in 1772, they were among the first members of the new sect.

Two of his sons, however, became Baptist preachers while the third was a minister without a parish, a traveling minister. It is stated that Mr. Smith’s home was the home of the early preachers and that it was here that the conference of 1780 was held. This conference was held at the Huguenot settlement of Manakin Town. Hence it appears probable that the Smith homestead was held there.

He was married three times, and by each marriage had one son and one daughter. His first wife, Mary Ann Martin Rapine, bore him a son named George Rapine Smith born in 1747, known in the family as “Millpond George.” And a daughter named Judith Smith, who afterward married Pierre Guerrant, a son by a former marriage of the lady who became Mr. Smith’s third wife. From George Rapine Smith was descended, General George Rappeen Smith born in 1804 in Kentucky. The General would later move to Missouri and found the City of Sedalia, where he died in about 1879.

The second wife of Thomas Smith was Frances Stovall, who became the mother of George Stovall Stokes Smith born in 1750, and Elizabeth Smith born in 1752.

Thomas Smith’s third marriage was with Magdalene Guerrant, a widow, (her maiden name Margaret Trabue); of Huguenot descent, whose son Major Pierre was with General Washington at Valley Forge. The children of this marriage were James Smith born in 1757, and Martha Smith born in 1759.

As you can see the Rapine, Guerrant, and Trabue families were all French Huguenot refugees. And as mentioned earlier, George “Burntface” Smith was listed as a tithable for the Huguenot’s King William Parish and must have joined with his first marriage. As was common during those times, many women died during childbirth. Their widowers would quickly remarry someone within their religious community, in this case, the Huguenots. As was also common, the children from the previous marriage often needed a spouse from within the community. In Thomas’ and Magdalene’s case, they both had an unmarried son and an unmarried daughter. Boom, “Bob’s your uncle” and four kids are married off in two weddings and no DNA issues later. A win-win.

As already mentioned, all three of Thomas Smith’s sons were preachers or ministers. They had all inherited slaves from their father but were fervent “Emancipation” ministers.

Reverend James Trabue Smith was a man of extreme conscientious scruples, and fervent piety. He became hotly opposed to the system of slavery, and convinced that the evils resulting from that institution threatened the safety of his state and the nation, and for many years prior to his removal from Virginia, seems to have been intent upon removing to a country where slavery did not exist.

From a book on the Goode ancestry.

“His experience of life in the wilderness, however, seemed only to stimulate his desire to escape with his family from the evil associations, as he deemed them, which were engendered by slavery. Immediately on his return from the last of these trips, he purchased a tract of land of about 2000 acres, lying on the Little Miami, at the mouth of Caesar’s Creek, and but a few miles distant from the land soon after to become the home of Philip Goode, and his brethren. He settled his affairs in Virginia, emancipated all his slaves, and in 1798, he and his family bade a final adieu to their old home, and in company with the family of their kinsman Gatch, started for the territory north-west of the Ohio River.”

Reverend George Millpond Smith was a Baptist Preacher and suffered many hardships because of his religious principles. He was jailed many times. Several for long periods of time. All because of his, what at the time were considered, “radical” views.

He was a well educated and wealthy man for the time, as wealth was counted in those days (hint, slavery). George Millpond Smith exerted some influence in Virginia.

In 1798, he emancipated his 9 slaves. George was married 3 times (having lost his wives to early deaths) and father 3 daughters and one son. The son, described later was George Rappeen Smith. He would eventually move to Missouri founding the town of Sedalia and be commissioned a General.

Reverend George Stoval Stokes Smith, like his brothers, became a Baptist minister who traveled and eventually settled in the small town of Keene Kentucky.

From the website of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Nicholasville, KY.

In 1801, with 100 members, a group soon bought a lot and built their church building near the home of the first pastor, George Stoval Smith, a distinguished citizen who had helped frame the first Constitution of Kentucky.

From an obituary for George Stoval Stokes Smith.

“George S. Smith was a man of great respectability as a citizen, and was much of a doctrinal preacher. Simplicity and plainness attended his whole course. His preaching operated but sparingly on the passions of his hearers; for though his voice, was strong and sonorous, it lacked softness and melody. As a Gibbeonite in the house of God, he was better calculated to hew wood than to draw water.”

xxx

xxx

General George Stoval Smith stuff

xxx