Richard Goldsmith, I

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Goldsmith-60
Richard Goldsmith (abt. 1604 - abt. 1673)

Richard Goldsmith
Born about 12 Feb 1604 in St. Mary, Whitechapel, Stepney, London, Englandmap [uncertain]
Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling%28s%29 unknown]
Husband of Mary (Loring) Goldsmith — married 1625 [location unknown]
Husband of Mary (Unknown) Abbe — married before 1648 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Baymap
DESCENDANTS descendants
Father of Thomas Goldsmith, John Goldsmith, Ralph Goldsmith, Richard Goldsmith, George Goldsmith, Joshua Goldsmith, Marie (Goldsmith) Patch, John Goldsmith and Hannah Goldsmith
Died about 14 May 1673 at about age 69 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Baymap
PROBLEMS/QUESTIONSProfile managers: L. Djerf private message [send private message] and Christopher Childs private message [send private message]
Profile last modified 10 Dec 2021 | Created 9 Mar 2011
This page has been accessed 2,526 times.
Contents

[hide]
1 Disputed Generation
2 Biography
3 Research Notes
3.1 Birth (probable but uncertain):
3.2 Marriage (spouse's full name uncertain):
3.3 Death (presumed to be that of Richard, Sr.):
3.4 Children
4 Sources
5 Acknowledgments
Disputed Generation

A manuscript "Goldsmith Genealogy", by John A. Becker (see Research Notes, Bibliographic), maintains that the Richard Goldsmith killed by lightning at Wenham in 1673 (see Research Notes below) was the junior Richard Goldsmith -- the son, not the father... and that the widow, Mary Goldsmith, who subsequently married John Abbe was the widow of the younger Richard. The basis for this hypothesis is that James Savage, in his "Genealogical Dictionary"[1], describes the victim of the lightning strike as "a young man", though no authority for this is cited; in Increase Mather's account, on which Savage's is presumably based (he refers to it specifically, if parenthetically), no mention is made of the victim's age.

A similar account, but without reference to age, is offered among miscellaneous notes to a booklet reproducing two sermons delivered at the First Church of Wenham by the Rev. Daniel Mansfield; it may cite the most authoritative version: "Josselyn, in the account of his second voyage to New England, says... 'Sab. May 18, 1673. Richard Goldsmith was killed by lightning, at the house of Rev. Mr. Newman (lately deceased), while Rev. Mr. Higginson was present.' Mr. H. had been preaching here, and had just returned from meeting in the afternoon."[2]

The assumption of this profile is that, as the John Abbe who married the widow Mary Goldsmith is understood to have been the senior John Abbe (a friend and contemporary of Richard Goldsmith, Sr. who apprenticed a son, Obadiah, to the latter), he would most logically have married as his second wife a woman relatively close to his own age. It is therefore assumed that it was the older man who died in the lightning event, and his wife who subsequently remarried.

Biography

Richard Goldsmith was born in England, possibly in Lincolnshire or Devonshire, but a 1604 Middlesex christening at St. Mary Whitechapel -- within the core of London -- has been tentatively accepted for this profile; should this prove inaccurate, a birth as late as 1620 is possible if the assertion that he was a shipowner by the early 1630s is incorrect. Richard emigrated to America, arguably on the ship of which he was said to be an owner -- the Bonaventure -- in 1634.

Richard (Sr.) married, while still in England and possibly as early as 1625, a woman named Mary, sometimes mistakenly refered to as Mary Loring. It is however a second wife named Mary, married by 1648 -- thought to be Mary Perkins -- who is presumed to have married John Abbe after her husband's dramatic demise as the victim of a lightning-strike, at Wenham in the spring of 1673.

On 28 : 10 : 1647 [28 December 1647], Richard Goldsmith was sworn in as constable of Wenham.[3]

On 27 : 4 : 1649 [27 June 1649], Richard Goldsmith and John Fiske, both of Wenham, were sworn freemen.[4]

Research Notes

The 1604 birth record found for Richard Goldsmithe at Whitechapel, Stepney, London, is within what was still County Middlesex in 1604 (that birth year is also claimed in a 2000 forum post on genealogy.com). Note that a Richard Goldsmyth is shown on freereg.org.uk as bp. on 13 Aug 1603 at Walsall (St. Matthew), in Staffordshire, but he is geographically unlikely to be a member of this family (see FreeReg). A Lincolnshire origin has also been proposed for Richard, and those records -- spanning three generations -- also require careful examination.

There is a tradition that Richard was a shipbuilder, and that he owned a ship called the Bonaventure; it is claimed that he came to America on the Bonaventure in 1634, although his name does not appear on the passenger list (conceivably, because he was an owner). His son, Richard, Jr., is -- also by a traditional belief -- said to have been born on that trip, aboard ship; it is however possible that he was born prior to the voyage, in England. Richard, Sr. may have a brother named Ralph, who was also a ship's captain.

A now-merged version of this profile originally showed a 1673 death location of Chelmsford, in Massachusetts Bay; although he and others from Wenham are associated with the founding of a church at Chelmsford and he may have lived there for a time[5], no indication of Richard Goldsmith's death has been found in Chelmsford records. However -- even though the death took place at Wenham -- a note was made of it in Littleton[6], which at that time bordered part of Chelmsford (a part that later became Westford). Littleton would likely have taken notice in any case because a younger Richard, probably a nephew of the elder one (a son of his brother Zacheus[7]), lived in or hard by Littleton; he and his wife, Hannah (Dodge) Goldsmith, raised their family there[8].

Both the Littleton record of the lightning-bolt death of Richard Goldsmith, and the published account by Increase Mather, appear to be in error about the exact date: the Littleton version -- at least in printed transcript -- inverts two digits and shows "1763" instead of "1673"; whether or not its "May 13" date is correct cannot be verified by any record found at Wenham, but in showing May 13 as "Sun." it does not bolster its case: the 13th was a Saturday[9]. Increase Mather, on the other hand -- also reporting the event as occurring on "the Lord's Day" -- gets the year right but shows "May 18"... a Thursday.[10]

An extensive discussion of two (or more) Richard Goldsmiths may be found at: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/goldsmith/417/ -- in reply to: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/goldsmith/396/ .

A 2019 comment below from Al Adams posits an 18 March 1620 Lincolnshire birth for Richard, at Haxey; this record appears on FamilySearch: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NGJF-G68 : 22 March 2020), Richardus Goldsmith, 1620. The difficulty obviously lies in proving that this Richard is the one who emigrated to Wenham.

Most material on this profile originally from ancestry.com family trees has been deleted; trees are secondary and tertiary sources and cannot be relied on as the basis for an individual's vital statistics -- only as suggestions of where to look for primary, or more reliable secondary, data.

Deed Research.
Essex (Massachusetts) Deed index (grantee) 1640-1799 A-Hac, Goldsmith begins at image 588 of 637.
Essex (Massachusetts) Deed index (grantor) 1640-1799 Fos-Nix, Goldsmith begins at image 103 of 724.

See especially, Essex (Massachusetts) Deeds 13:87, "Richard [?Jr.] est., Zacheus Goldsmith to Nathaniel Waldron, dated 7 January 1695/6, recorded 16 February 1698/9, "Deeds 1697-1700 vol 12-13" in "Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch, FHL film DGS 007,462,658 image 292-293 of 538. Zacheus is a weaver, his wife is Martha, who waived her right of dower; Waldron is a bricklayer; sale is "two certain parcels" of land at Wenham; one parcel of about 18-1/2 acres bounded by "ye oarchard that was formerly Richard Goldsmith Deceased" of which 16 acres "being that which Richard" Goldsmith died possessed of, the remainder being formerly Capt. Smith's; the other parcel contains 5 acres by ?measure of upland and meadow by the river; immediately prior deed is John Abbey (yeoman) and Hannah his wife, to Nathaniel Waldron, dated 29 October 1696, recorded 16 February 1689/9. (Image 291 of 538.)

Fiske Notes. Margaret Blair (2006) cites The Notebook of the Reverend John Fiske ... See Robert G. Pope, ed, The Notebook of the Reverend John Fiske, 1644-1675 in Publications of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts 47 (1974), as 7 web pages, Title page, Introduction, Editor's Note, node 1067, node 1071, Appendix, Index, at node 1071; web version, Colonial Society of Massachusetts. In this material, Richard Goldsmith and Mary his wife are mentioned a number of times, beginning 31 May 1648, when "Mary Goldsmith" appears in the record. Particularly significant genealogically mentions are, (1) 15 October 1648 "or thereabouts, Mary, the daughter of Richard and Mary Goldsmith, baptized"; (2) 14 July 1650. "Sarah, the daughter of Brother Goldsmith and his wife, was baptized"; (3) 8 February 1653/4, "help to be afforded to Brother Goldsmith in the keeping out his child, being at our Brother Geere’s"; (4) 25 March 1653/4, "... undertook to see to get some clothing with what was in their hands for Brother Goldsmith’s child, Thomas Goldsmith."

Bibliographic.

John Adams Becker, Goldsmith, a genealogy : from Richard Goldsmith of Wenham, Massachusetts 1644 to John Adams Becker, born in 1932 ... (Concord, Ontario, Becker Associates, c1994); digital images, FamilySearch Books; includes option to download PDF.
Margaret Blair, "Richard Goldsmith of Wenham and Some Descendants." The Essex Genealogist 26 (2006): 31-35 (Part I), 77-79 (Part II), 113-117 (Part III), 161-165 (Part IV); digital images by subscription, AmericanAncestors.
Arthur Hitchcock Radasch, "Goldsmith Genealogy: Descendants of Richard Goldsmith of Wenham, Mass." (Upper Montclair, NJ: N. pub. N.d), N. pag. Manuscript located at MSS Cb 203, New England Historic Genealogical Society. WorldCat, OCLC Number 48011359; "1 v. [118 leaves)." [Cited by Margaret Blair (2006).] NEHGS catalog, "R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department, New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, Mass.), Mss A 941."
John Jay Putnam, Family History in the Line of Joseph Convers of Bedford, Massachusetts, 1739-1828 (Worcester, F. S. Blanchard & company, 1897), 43-44; digital images, Hathi Trust.
Birth (probable but uncertain):

1604 St Mary, Whitechapel, Middlesex, England [11]

Marriage (spouse's full name uncertain):

About 1623 to Mary ____.

Death (presumed to be that of Richard, Sr.):

Richard, Sr. died on May 18, 1673 (Age: 69) Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. He was struck by lightening while sitting on Reverend Newman's front porch, engaged in conversation. His dog, who was sitting beneath his chair was also killed. [12]

Children

Probably all born in Wenham:[13]

Thomas Goldsmith, b probably before 1648 and definitely by 1653
Mary bpt c 15 Oct 1648 d. prob. at Beverly 1744; m. Beverly, Massachusetts 8 Feb 1762/3 Richard Patch.
Sarah bp 14 July 1650; d. Beverly 20 July 1674; m. 29 Sep 1668, Wenham, Jonathan Biley
Hannah b. Wenham 4 Mar 1657. She and John Rayment jr. were at court for "uncivil carriages" and 29 Jun 1679 she was ordered to be whipped.
Zaccheus b. c. 1662 m. Martha Hutton.
Sources

↑ A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, by James Savage, Vol. 2, p. ; https://books.google.com/books?id=NHpKDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1673-IA223&lpg=...
↑ Two Sermons Delivered on the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Organization of the First Church" of Wenham, by the Rev. Daniel Mansfield, published by request of the church, 1845; https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/20969/dvm_LocHist007057-00035-...? (subscription required)
↑ George Francis Dow, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 9 vols. (Salem, Mass. : Essex institute, 1911-1975), 1:130; digital images, Hathi Trust; court held at Salem.
↑ George Francis Dow, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 9 vols. (Salem, Mass. : Essex institute, 1911-1975), 1:170; digital images, Hathi Trust; court held at Salem.
↑ "Wenham, a Shaky Start", by Barbara Holden, The Essex Genealogist, Vol. 24, p. 106. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB396/i/13119/106/234289651 (by subscription)
↑ Death at Wenham, MA, recorded at Littleton, MA [which adjoined Chelmsford]: "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-DFLY : 29 November 2018), Richard Goldsmith, 13 May 1763; citing Death, Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007578571.
↑ William Blake Trask, "Records of the Congregational Church in Wenham, Mass.", New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 61 (1907):330-38, 62 (1908):34-48, at 41; digital images, Hathi Trust.
↑ "Richard Goldsmith m. pub. June 23 1725 Hannah, probably dau. Nehemiah Dodge of Wenham. Richard resided and d. in Littleton. Children :", Littleton Town Records, Vol. 1, p. 436 -- Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/13484/436/238434952 (by subscription)
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," Richard Goldsmith, 13 May 1763; as above
↑ Death (published report by Increase Mather; republished 1890; either day of week or date is incorrect, as the 18th was a Thursday; prev. Sunday was the 14th): "On the 18th of May (being the Lord's Day)... at Wenham... came in a ball of fire... at the feet of Richard Goldsmith... some in the room endeavoured to hold him up but found him dead" -- Remarkable Providences Illustrative of the Earlier Days of American Colonisation. With introductory pref. by Mather, Increase, 1639-1723; Offor, George, 1787-1864, London, Reeves and Turner, 1890; p. 57; https://archive.org/details/remarkableprovid00mathuoft/page/56
↑ American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
↑ U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
↑ Blair, Margaret. "Richard Goldsmith of Wenham and Some Descendants." The Essex Genealogist 26: 33 (2006) Link at AmericanAncestors ($)
See also:

George Francis Dow, The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 3 vols. (Salem, Mass., Essex Institute, 1916-1920), 2:377-78 (Estate of Richard Goldsmith of Wenham); digital images, Hathi Trust.
Birth (presumed; christening, at St. Mary Whitechapel, London, at that time a part of County Middlesex): "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWVQ-XY6 : 11 February 2018, Richard Goldsmithe, 12 Feb 1604); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 94,691.
Marriage (2) to Mary ?Perkins, by 1648 (should not be confused as a marriage of Richard, Jr.): "GOLDSMITH, Richard & Mary [?PERKINS]; by 1648; Wenham/Chelmsford {Wenham Ch. Rec.; Converse (1897) 43}" -- New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21174/628/426887499 (subscription required)
Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB515/i/13766/11077-co2/30194705
Birth (unsourced est.), death, and probable burial: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 02 May 2019), memorial page for Richard Goldsmith (1620–18 May 1673), Find A Grave Memorial no. 170034929, Maintained by Stan Arnold (contributor 48121400) Unknown; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170034929
Second marriage of widow Mary (?Perkins) Goldsmith, to John Abbe, 25 Nov. 1674: "ABBIE, John1 & 2/wf Marah/Mary (?PERKINS) GOLDSMITH, w Richard; 25 Nov 1674; Wenham {Essex Ant. 1:14, 149; Woodruff (1925) 11; Abbe-Abbey 5; Pope's Pioneers 9; Granberry 139} " -- New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21174/1/426911575 (subscription required)
Acknowledgments

This profile was originally created through the import of Earls Family Tree Backup-1_2011-03-08.ged on 09 March 2011.