Ancestry of
Joseph Smith

Founder of the Mormon Church

Mary -----

View famous kin of Mary -----

• • 4th Great-grandmother of Joseph Smith — 7th Generation
  • Ahnentafel No:
  • 67 
  • Father:
  • Mother:
  •  
  • Birth Date:
  • ABT 1609 
  • Birth Location:
  •  
  • Christening Date:
  •  
  • Christening Location:
  •  
  • Death Date:
  • 6 May 1681 
  • Death Location:
  • Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts 
  • Burial Date:
  •  
  • Burial Location:
  •  
  • Spouse Name:
  • Thomas French
  • Marriage Date:
  • BEF 1632 
  • Marriage Location:
  • prob. Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts 
  • Children:
  
  

  Mary French

  Mary French (Ahnentafel No:33 )

  John French

  Thomas French

  Sarah French

  Samuel French

  Ephraim French

  • Notes: 

  • Mary French is often claimed to be the daughter of William Scudamore of Tedgewood, Upton Bishop, in Herefordshire. However all that is truly known about Mary Scudamore is that she was married to a man named “French of Boston in New England.” This statement is found in a 1683 Visitation. She is also mentioned in her brother William's will dated 04 NOV 1636 when he states “to all the now children of Mary French.”

    The problem is that the more numerous descendants of Thomas French like to claim Mary while ignoring that there is also a Stephen French whose wife was named Mary and was of the right age and in the vicinity of Boston. If they do acknowledge it, they will point out the Thomas was of Boston while Stephen was of Dorchester. However, Dorchester was right next to Boston and in 1870 was actually absorbed by Boston and is now simply a neighborhood in Boston. It seems that the statement “of Boston in New England” could easily refer to the wives of either Thomas French or Stephen French. Until more concrete evidence is found to rule out Mary as the wife of Stephen French, Thomas French's wife Mary has to be considered unknown.

• Sources for Mary -----

  • ¹ New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 2023, Vol. 177, p. 42.
  • ² Anderson, Mary Audentia Smith, Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale: With Little Sketches of Their Immigrant Ancestors All of Whom . . ., Independence, Missouri: Herald Publishing House (1929), 53, 84-86, see chart preceding p. 51.
  • ³ Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. 1, A-F, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society (1995), 705.
  • ⁴ Davis, Walter Goodwin, The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes, Portland, ME: Anthoensen Press (1959), 64.
  • ⁵ Linzee, John William, The History of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles of Roxbury, Mass. and Their Ancestors and Descendants, Boston: Privately Printed (1913), 419.