John Smith, only child of Christopher Smith and his 2nd wife the former widow Mary (Fairbanks) Metcalf, b. Nov. 19, 1655 at Dedham, Mass. [Dedham VRs.] He d. Oct. 7, 1722 at Needham, Mass. [Needham VRs.]

Whereas John's mother Mary and her first husband are the memorialist's ancestors, John Smith's wife, Abigail Day, was the maternal granddau. of the memorialist's immigrant ancestors, Lieut. Griffin and Alice Crafts of Roxbury, Mass.

A central point of genealogical research is the factual verification of a family and its descendants based on primary records, not on published genealogies and/or IGI records that fail to properly reflect double year dating in the old English Julian (pre-1752) calendar, or doe not include all of the recorded children of the descendant families.

On "ye 21 of 10ber, 1677" (i.e., Dec 21, 1677) of record at Dedham, Mass. [Dedham VRs.], John m. Abigail Day, dau. of Sgt. Ralph Day and his 2nd wife the former widow Abigail (Crafts) Ruggles, b. of record Apr. 22, 1661 at Dedham, Mass. [ibid.] She d. June 15, 1725 at Needham, Mass. [Needham VRs.]

John Smith and Abigail Day had 8 children recorded at Dedham, Mass., part of the children represented by the use of only a numerical date sequence in the old Julian calendar. As necessary, the children's dates have been converted to historical dating in the modern Gregorian calendar:

• i. Abigail Smith, b. Oct. 27, 1678; d. young.

• ii. John Smith, Jr., b. Feb. 16, 1679/80, d. of record Dec. 15, 1752 at Ashford, Conn., but no record of a gravestone exists there; m. Mar 18, 1702/3 of record at Dedham, Mass., Mary "Accors," by whom he 13 children b. of record at Needham, Mass. The date and place of wife Mary's death is not of record.

• iii. Christopher Smith, b. Nov. 29, 1681, d. in 1724 at Needham, Mass.; m. Rebecca --- by whom he had four recorded children at Needham. His widow Rebecca d. Sept. 19, 1761 at Needham.

• iv. Abigail Smith, b. Mar 2, 1683/4, d. Nov. 12, 1730 at Sudbury, Mass.; m. of record at Sudbury Mar. 12, 1719/20, Dea. James Brewer. One child of the marriage, s. John b. in 1721 who died unmarried in 1740.

• v. Jonathan Smith, b. Feb. 11, 1686/7, d. Apr. 22, 1752 at Needham, Mass.; m. on an unrecorded date and place, his half -1st cousin Martha Ruggles, dau. of John Ruggles, Jr. and his 2nd wife Hannah Devotion, b. Dec. 21, 1686 at Roxbury, Mass. They had 9 children of record at Needham. When wife Martha died cannot be found of record.

• vi. Joshua Smith, b. Apr. 6, 1691, d. Aug. 23, 1727 at Needham, Mass.; m. Aug. 23, 1709 at Dedham, Elizabeth Wadkins. Six children of record at Needham.

• vii. Caleb Smith, b. Mar. 15, 1693/4; m. of record July 4, 1717 at Medway, Mass., Rachel Fisher. Ten children of record, the 9 oldest of record at Needham, the youngest b. of record at Canton-Stoughton, Mass.

• viii. Moses Smith, b. Aug. 5, 1695; m. of record Sept. 16, 1723 at Needham, Mass., Mary Parker. Four children recorded at Needham.

Two additional children are traditionally accepted to be John and Abigail's children, but no record of their birth or baptism exists for factual confirmation:

• ix. Samuel Smith, b. circa 1697, d. Mar. 1, 1753 at Ashford, Conn. (g.s.); m. of record May 30, 1722 at Needham, Mass., Zipporah Morse, by whom he had 14 recorded children, the first 11 of record at Needham, the last three at Ashford, Conn. When Zipporah died is not of record and she has no recorded death or gravestone at Ashford, Conn.

• x. Aaron Smith, b. circa 1699, purportedly d. Apr. 15, 1776 at Needham although this date is not recorded there; m. of record June 29, 1725 at Needham, Martha Ware, whose date of death is not of record, but was living at Needham in 1780. They purportedly died childless.

In George K. Clarke's 1912 published History of Needham, Massachusetts (p. 315-6):

• The Needham Cemetery Includes a portion of the land granted by the inhabitants of Dedham in 1710/11 for the support of the ministry on the north side of the Charles River. On December 4, 1711, the Town of Needham chose a committee consisting of the five selectmen and Jonathan Gay, Jeremiah Woodcock, Thomas Metcalf and Eleazer Kingsbery to "Stake and Bound outt a pleace for the Buerring of the dead of this town in." They selected the wellknown place (Needham Cemetery), where interments are said to have been made prior to 1711, the first that of a child in the winter season. The earliest date of a death, recorded on a stone, is December 4, 1711, which is scratched on a rough field stone in memory of Edward Cook. Barely an acre of ground received nearly all of the dead of the town, until the space was exhausted, although only a fraction of the graves are marked by stones.

Except for son Samuel Smith, neither the parents nor any of the other children have known burial locations and extant gravestones. The memorialist has assumed at least John Smith and wife Abigail Day are interred at Needham Cemetery, but now without extant gravestones, if they had one to begin with.