SMART ROOTS - Our Family Origins

Our family story is pieced together from statistical info and pertinent historical facts:

This history is fiction based on facts. These facts are not all proven nor are they necessarily corroborated. The purpose of this story is to paint as accurate a picture of their lives as possible from what we do know about them and their times. By putting this "straw man history" on the Internet, others are able to further speculate, investigate and discuss our family history, thereby finding any errors and flushing out details.

Table of Contents

Smertae of Scotland

Immigration

Growing in NC

Moving Westward

 

 

 

 

Our Scottish/English History (1597 - 1684)

This history of our Smart family goes back to the late 16th Century in the highlands of northern Scotland. But our recorded family history only reaches back in time to 1597 when John Smart Senior's father was born somewhere in Scotland. It is thought he was Roman Catholic (assumed due to later America immigration via Maryland). Immigration Search Doc

John Smart Sr., moved to England sometime during his life (1623-80) probably because of religious/political pressures.

His son, John Smart Jr., was born in 1663 at Warwick, Middleton, England. After losing his young wife and only child during labor, John Jr. immigrated to America in 1684 at the age of 21.

He immigrated to the New World in order to create a new life. He carried letters of introduction from prominent friends and associates in England. They recommended that, after arriving, he contact prominent "exiles" already settled in America, to see where he could best secure a living.

One such man, Joseph Reed, lived in Maryland, where John's ship landed.

Brief Scottish History: 1603 (Union of the Crowns) - 1660 (The Restoration)

In 1603, England and Scotland were united when Queen Elizabeth of England died without an heir and Scotland's King James (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) also became King of England. James promptly moved to England where he ruled until his death in 1625. Charles I ruled until his execution in England in 1649.

Religious factions governed both realms, via Parliament, under the auspices of The Solemn League and Covenant, signed in 1643. With the First Civil War in England (1642-1646) monarchy was out of vogue in England.

The staunch Presbyterians of Scotland were opposed to the more liberal influences of the English Protestants. The Jacobites, seeing the rift between the Protestants, tried to restore the deposed Monarchy to affect a government more tolerant to the Catholic faith.

In 1646, the Clan MacKenzie Chief (the Earl of Seaforth) was still in possession of the Castle Chanonry of Ross [no longer exists]. James Graham the Marquis of Montrose laid siege to the castle and took it from the MacKenzies.

In 1649 a large force of Covenanters stormed Inverness Castle. Among the commanders were Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine. They opposed the authority of the current parliament. They assaulted the town and took the castle, expelling the garrison and raising the fortifications. Parliamentary forces led by General David Leslie forced the clans back into Ross-shire. However the MacKenzies left a garrison in Inverness Castle and Leslie withdrew to deal with a rising in the south. The MacKenzies retook the Castle Chanonry of Ross from the current Parliamentary forces. However, the Parliamentary forces, led by a Colonel Kerr, soon after took the MacKenzie's Redcastle and hanged the garrison.

February 5, 1649 : Scotland proclaims Charles II as King of Great Britain. The English had just thrown off the yoke of one king and had no wish to have another. This act, in effect, smashed the Union of the Crowns.

January 1, 1651: Charles II crowned Scottish monarch.

October 15, 1651: Charles II escapes to France/Holland.

1651- 1660: The Interregnum - Cromwell rules Scotland peacefully until his death.

1660: The Restoration - Charles II is restored to the throne and begins taking revenge on those, including the Marquis of Argyll, who humiliated him during his 18 months in Scotland.