The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: PA
Qualifying Service: 1st Lieutenant
Birth: 1725 / / Ireland Death: 19 Aug 1789 / York / PA
Qualifying Service Description:
2nd Company of Captain Josh Reed in the 8th Battalion York County
York County Election Inspector in October 1777
Commissioner to collect clothing in November 1777
Additional References:
56th-77th Annual Reports DAR. Senate documents. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC
George R. Prowell: History of York County, Pennsylvania, Volume 1, pg 269
Gibson's History of York County, pg 135, col. 1
Spouse: Elizabeth Buchanan Children: William; Robert; Mary Jane; Margaret;
Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
Robert Smith was born at Northern Ireland. Family legend, without evidence, asserts his birth place was Londonderry, County Ulster, and he was from a family of merchants. About 1741, he immigrated to the American Colonies, and was an early settler of Carroll’s Delight, York County, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Buchanan about 1759.1
Smith was a first lieutenant in either the Third Company of the Sixth Battalion under Captain Joseph Reed,2 or the Third Company of the Eighth Battalion.3 He was a county election inspector in October 1777.4 He was a Commissioner for the York County of Committee of Safety to collect clothing.5 He was eligible to serve as a wagon master for the Sixth Battalion,6 however; there is no primary evidence he actually did so. He paid his taxes in 1783 based on ownership of 355 acres and three horses.7
Robert Smith died 19 August 1789 at Hamiltonban Township, York County, Pennsylvania. His estate accounts, including item four to William Orr for a coffin at £1,10 and "…also funeral expenses of one pound.” When David Agnew and James Thomson appraised his estate, they listed more than 60 items including padlocks, hinges, buttons, buckles, watch chains, medicinal remedies such as Bateman's Pectoral Drops and Godfreys Cordial, coats, jackets, shirts, hats, boots, shoes, gloves, handkerchiefs, and fabrics including calamanco, linsey, striped lawn, as well as 300 fish hooks,8 which suggests Smith was still a merchant, rather than an innkeeper.
Originally, Robert Smith was buried after 19 August 1789 at Black's Graveyard, Upper Marsh Creek Presbyterian Church, Adams County, Pennsylvania. After 1854, his descendants removed his body from the “…old, neglected burial ground…,”9 and interred him in the Evergreen Cemetery, Section H, Range 51, at Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania.10
References:
1. Edith M. Hall, Robert Wharton and His Descendants: A Family History (Topeka, KS: Copy Center of Topek, 1985), Pg. 19 (chart).
2. George R. Prowell, History of York County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1907, Vol. 1, Pg. 269, Col. 2 (centered).
3. Ibid., Vol. 1, Pg. 283, Col. 1.
4. Published Pennsylvania Archives, Series 6, Vol. 11, Pg. 421.
5. John Gibson, History of York County Pennsylvania (Chicago: Batty, 1886), Pg. 132, 313: wherein they “…ordered that the persons hereinafter named in the respective counties be authorized and required to collect without delay from such of the individuals of the respective counties as have not taken the oath of allegiance and adjuration, or who have aided and assisted the enemy, arms and accoutrements, blankets, woolen and linsey woolsey cloth, linen, shoes and stocking, for the army; that they appraise the same when taken, etc."
6. Published Pennsylvania Archives, Series 6, Vol. 2, Pg. 549-551.
7. George R. Prowell, History of York County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1907), Vol. 1, Pg. 942.
8. Robert Smith Estate Proceedings, of record at York County, Pennsylvania.
9. B. F. M. MacPherson's "A Bit of History About Early Settlers--The Morrison-Buchanan Family," Gettysburg Times, 8 Aug 1959, Pg. 4, Col. 3.
10. Findagrave.com Memorial #34869547.
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