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: MA
Qualifying Service: Seaman
Birth: 1758 Durham / / England Death: 1793 At Sea
Qualifying Service Description:
Seaman - under Capt James Johnson , Brigantine "Pallas" during the Penobscot Expedition : July-August 1779; lost at Sea
Additional References:
Rev War register, Treasury Payroll, Brigantine Pallas
MA Soldiers and Sailors of the War of the Revolution, pg 498
MA Archives Collection, 1772 - 1789: content list volume 139, reels 2-3, Revolutionary miscellaneous, 1786 to 1789
Author: Alan J. Clark
Seaman Michael Smith Born probably in November 17, 1749 at Barnard Castle, Durham, England, married Patience Potter September 30, 1779 in North Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts, just after returning from disastrous defeat at Penobscot Expedition that summer. She was the widow of Surgeon Aaron Putnam who died from illness or wounds at Ticonderoga October 3, 1777. He served aboard the privateer Pallas which was crewed by conscripts and turned British seaman from among American prizes. It is likely he was son of William and Ann Willis Smith of Barnard Castle and served as crew from South Shields , Durham County, or Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland County England on Jesmont in 1775 to 1777, and Ward and Isabella in 1778-79 and possibly impressed in London in 1779 on Brigs Diligent or Active, both American prizes used in the Penobscot Expedition in 1779 from Boston. There were several Potter seamen, Thomas, Aaron, John, Ephraim Potter or Abraham Putnam of Colonel Paul Revere’s artillery regiment at Penobscot who might be relatives of future wife Patience Potter who during the long walk home from Castine, Maine to Boston encouraged the meeting of the recently widowed Patience with three small children. Michael may have died at sea after 1793. He had Betsey, Michael, Daniel, Nancy, Cheney, Marion, Elizabeth, Alden, Alanson, Charlotte Ann, Daniel, Mary, John M., Reuben, Achsah, Harriet, Ulysses, Melinda.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.