Francis Smiley

Francis Smylie (later Smiley) was born in Londonderry in Northern Ireland and was possibly a son of Thomas Smylie, a Scot whose father had migrated to Ireland with his family.

In Londonderry in 1717, Francis married Agnes Wilson, who was born there in 1693. The couple had five children, four of whom were born in Ireland.

With three, possible four, of their Irish-born children, they migrated to America in 1727, initially settling in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the north east of the country. Within a year, their fifth child was born.

The family moved to Windham, New Hampshire in 1743 where Francis bought a farm from Thomas Monson. Two years after the death of Francis, this farm was sold to Alexander Park, whose daughter Mary married Hugh, a son of Francis and Agnes.

Francis died on 16 March 1763 at Windham at the age of 74; Agnes died almost 30 years later, on 23 December 1792, in Old Dunstable, New Hampshire, when she was close to 100 years old.

Footnote: Francis had two brothers who also moved from Ireland to America. According to some stories, one brother, William, was pressed into the British naval service. After about seven years in the navy, his vessel anchored in Long Island Sound, and William Smiley, with two cousins, escaped from service by swimming ashore in Connecticut. It is unclear when the other brother, John, migrated to America but he settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts.