John Smith

GEDCOM Note

John Smith, a brewer, was a brother of William Smith, father of my great-great grandfather Alexander Carmichael Smith - we know this from a newspaper reference to William's son William being John's nephew. My great grandparents Alexander Higgie and Barbara Clarke Smith were therefore second cousins.

We know from William Smith's death certificate that his parents were David Smith and Catherine Henderson, who married at Forgan, Fife, in 1797. So these were also John Smith's parents. It is possible to trace Catherine Henderson's line back further because of family naming patterns. John Smith's brother William christened one of his sons Alexander Carmichael Smith and another Adam Blair Smith. These names honoured the husbands of two of his Henderson aunts.

William Henderson and Katherine Just, who married at Forgan in 1762, had two daughters, Hannah and Elizabeth, who respectively married Alexander Carmichael and Adam Blair. They had a further daughter Catherine in 1767, the right age to marry David Smith in 1797. While there are too many William Hendersons in Fife to trace his line back further, there was just one christening of a Katherine Just in Fife before William Henderson's and Katherine Just's marriage in 1762 - that of Katherine Just on 5 Nov 1738 at Forgan, parents David Just and Anna Madison. The tombstone of this couple survives at Forgan and it includes their years of birth. This means it is possible in both cases to identify their fathers from the parish christening records.

After the death of John?s wife Janet née Simpson in 1829, John married Marjory Gorrie, who bore him four children between 1830 and 1840.

In the 1841 census, John Smith's family was living in Whitenhill Street, Ferryport-on-Craig.

The Ferryport parish register records: '31 Aug 1844: buried the body of John Smith, Brewer, found at the West Water. He was drowned on the 7 Aug his boat being run down by a Foreign Schooner'.

The 'Fife Herald' of Thursday 15 August 1844 carried the following article: 'Ferryport-on-Craig - Fatal Occurrence':

'About 8 o'clock on the morning of Thursday last John Smith, brewer, residing here left his place in a coble (note: a flat-bottomed rowing or fishing boat) accompanied by his two sons William and Alexander and William Smith his nephew - all boys, the youngest of whom was only 8 years old. They proceeded to the gas works, Dundee, and took in a cargo of cinders with which they were proceeding homewards; and when they were about the middle of the river, and nearly opposite to the Westmost lighthouse, and while standing in for the South Ferry, they observed the schooner 'Enegheden' of Norway running down before the wind, and having her top sails and top gallantsail set. She was at this time about a gun-shot off when suddenly she sheared round to the south and came right upon the coble, striking her about the centre, which stove (sic) in her starboard side and upset her immediately.

William Smith, the oldest boy (and who, we are sorry to say, is the only survivor) was at the time pulling the larboard (note: 'port') bow; he has a distinct recollection of the vessel rearing them, and of hearing his father call out to those on board of her not to run them down when someone from on board called out 'what do you want?'

After the boat swamped, the boy was under it for some time and never saw his father or friends more. He was picked up by the pilot boat nearly unconscious and hanging on by an oar. The pilot, James Watson, conveyed William to Broughty Ferry, and the vessel went direct out of the river. At the time the accident happened the Pilot had given up the charge of the vessel and had gone down below with the master to receive his fee, leaving the mate at the helm, so that no responsibility or blame in the smallest appears to attach itself to him. Mr Smith was a very respectable man and has left a widow with eight children, the youngest of whom is only 12 months old.'

A memorial dedicated to him and family members stands in the Tayport kirkyard with the inscription: Erected by William Smith in memory of his mother Marjory Gorrie, who died 26 December 1867, aged 70 years. Also John Smith, Brewer, Tayport, his father, who died 8 August 1844 aged 43 years, and his brothers, Alexander, died 8 August 1844, aged 7 years, David, died 31 May 1850, aged 16 years, and James died 10 August 1854 aged 14 years."