Peter Smith vs. Peter Thacher Smith
The question is: Are this Peter Smith (1) and Peter Thacher Smith (2) one and the same? According to Marston Watson (Royal Ancestors Vol. 3, p. 278), Peter Smith(1), who married Sarah Appleton on 29 Mar 1753/4 in Ipswich, MA, was born 14 Jun 1731 in Boston. Coincidently, Peter Thatcher Smith(2), the son of Rev. Thomas and Sarah (Tyng) Smith, has the same birth date but was born in either, Falmouth or Portland, ME, or Boston, depending on the source. Donald Lines Jacobus’ The Bulkeley Genealogy (1933) has Peter(2)’s family defined on page 442, one wife, Elizabeth Wendell. Generally I consider Jacobus a valuable and accurate source, but he seems to have been unaware of the earlier Glover Memorials and Genealogies (1867) work which is more complete in its coverage. The Glover Genealogy has Peter(2)’s family onpp. 135-136, and gives him an additional wife later. So, why not a 3rd, earlier wife? Since Peter (1)'s children were all born prior to Peter(2)’s marriage to Elizabeth Wendell, perhaps Sarah Appleton and Peter(1) divorced? Or was Sarah and family abandoned? Sarah and her 4 children were “warned out” of Ipswich in Mar 1764 indicating she had no husband or means of support (Waters, Ipswich, p. 395). Sarah died and is buried in Ipswich as the widow of Peter Smith - according to her headstone, but this really doesn't say much.Peter(2) was 34 when he married Elizabeth in 1765, kind of late to be married the first time, and she was 10 years his junior. Peter(1) and Sarah's children were all baptized in Boston, where Peter(2) married his wife Elizabeth Wendell as well as his wife Jane “Jenny” Hunt in 1801.
Peter(1) was an early settler at Vinalhaven, ME, about 1760, about the time of the birth of his last child with Sarah, but after a few years, moved away and nothing was ever heard from him again (Lyons, Sketch of Vinalhaven, p. 42). Seems like he abandoned his family to me. His son John eventually settled Vinalhaven after serving in the Revolutionary War. Many of the original settlers of Vinalhaven originated from the Falmouth area – one of the places where Peter(2)’s supposed birth occurred.
Any ideas?