My Tangent - New Pieces To The Smith Genealogy Puzzle - Thoughts?

Early morning,

My mind has been focused on the repairs of the all the lightning damage and screw-ups... and now I am dealing with the insurance companies. I need to remind myself… “It took 1 ½ years the last time it happened; it took 1 ½ years.” Also my Internet router has been replaced.  The lightning surge damaged the uploading function.

Patience is a virtue, I think.

I am now beginning to continue to put the pieces of the unknown puzzle together… bit by bit. The search for the origins and genealogy of my ggg-grandfather James Smith continues.

In my search for my ggg-grandfather James Smith, one of the books that I have been reading is Douglas J. Hamilton’s “Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-1820”, Manchester University Press, 2005.

Thanks Steve in Glasgow for the reference. As I have mentioned time and time again, any possible lead is fodder for my search. There are a couple of leads that are worth pursuing.

The first possible lead, on page 68 of the chapter “Scots On The Plantations”, I read:

“To prevent further delays, Baillie advised Home to grant Richard Landreth power of attorney: ‘Mr. Landreth is married to Mr. Fraser’s sister and in absence conducts all his business, and all others committed to his case’. 52”

The footnote 52 reads:

“NAS, GD267/5/32/8, Home of Wedderburn manuscripts, Evan Baillie to George Home, 28 April 1806. Papers relating to the case be found in GD267/5/9.”

Evan Baillie was one of the sons of Hugh Baillie of Dochfour.

“In the late 1790s, Alexander Fraser was in charge of the Baillie’s plantation of Hermitage in Grenada.”

From the site, Landreth History

The compiler recently received a copy of a letter written to Robert Landreth in New Zealand from Thomas Landreth Smith in St. George, Grenada. The letter was written 6 Oct. 1919, but most of the contents were excerpts from a letter written to Thomas Landreth Smith from Burnet Landreth in Philadelphia, PA in December 1909. Some to the contents as follows:

"The original Landreth family settled at Berwick-on-Tweed. The immediate ancestors of my grandfather, David Landreth, lived south of Berwick while other members of the family went north into Scotland.

"While my grandfather lived in Philadelphia, there was a resident nearby a certain John Landreth, a cousin, who was the State Surveyor, and a cousin of this surveyor was Richard Landreth, born near Stichell, a village northwest of Berwick, who was commissioned in 1781 a Lieutenant in the 94th Regiment, and in the course of duty was sent to the Island of Grenada, West Indies, and died in 1811 with the rank of Colonel. He married a Miss Fragier (or Fraser according to records) of Edinbourough."

"He had a brother, William, who was commissioned an Ensign in the 33rd Regiment, died in 1790."

"The two brothers were natives, either of Stichell or Hume. They had a sister, Mary, who married John Boyd of Peebles. They were sons of William Landreth of Stichell, who married Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Brown of Stichell. William was a son of James Landreth of Hume."

Of one of the descendant lines of ggg-grandfather James Smith, the descendants have adopted the surname of Landreth-Smith.

The following cryptic note I received a couple of years ago from a family member. Thank you Steve in Wales for the copy.

“This is a copy of some notes Eileen Gentle (Smith) Carlisle gave to me. I believe the written by her father. I have them on a bad photocopy which will not scan properly. These notes go some way to explaining the Landreth connection.

Descent

Richard Landreth who was a Lieutenant in the army and afterward Col. In the local militia, a magistrate and member of the Kings Co. Had a daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte married Richard Collier in…
Their daughter married Thomas Smith who was the father of Thomas Landreth Smith

There are also some dates.
Richard Collier died 9.1.1840
Charlotte Collier died 9.1.1838
Thomas Smith died 184”

Enjoy these pieces to the puzzle, and search for ggg-grandfather James Smith. Please note that I am recording the above-mentioned quotes and excerpts exactly as I received them, spelling and grammar construction.

Jim