John Smith and Marah Huntley 8th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

Marah, or Mary, Huntley was born on December 3, 1660 in Lyme, Connecticut.- a new record shows Marah born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. The date is definite- the place is not. She was the 4th child of John and Jane Huntley. Her dad John Huntley would sail to Barbados, where he traded fish for tobacco and cotton. A record shows he bought a pair of shoes and a shirt for his wife on one trip. He probably bought back gifts for his kids too.

John Smith was born November 20, 1655 in Massachusetts, to Richard and Joanna Quarlls Smith who were both from England, and married in Boston. John and his family moved to Lyme Connecticut soon after John’s birth. In Lyme, on October 26, 1685 John and Marah married. They had at least 10 kids and stayed in the Lyme, New London, Connecticut area.

Before they married, John Smith, his dad and Marah’s dad, both their grandads, and future in laws were part of the Lyme Riot of August 1671. New London and Lyme, Connecticut, towns next to each other, had a history of land disputes. In 1671 men from both towns fought over mowing the minister’s meadows. 30 men from New London wanted to mow, a group of men from Lyme set out to do the same, and the riot started. After a while leaders from both towns met and “drinking a dram together with som(e) seeming friendship, every man departed to his home”. The men were fined, the courts eventually covered the fines.

John Smith died in Lyme, Connecticut on October 11, 1736. Marah Huntley Smith died soon after.

Sources

• New England historical and genealogical register John’s birth, their marriage at Archive.org.
• The American genealogist database at American Ancestors.
• Lyme Riots The public records of the Colony of Connecticut at HathiTrust.
• A Volume of records relating to the early history of Boston at HathiTrust
• Connecticut, Lyme, White Sand Beach postcard