CUTHBERT SMOOT5 AND HIS DESCENDANTS Cuthbert Smoot, son of John and Sarah Smoot, was born about 1744 in St. Mary's County, Maryland. In 1778 he took the Oath of Fidelity and Allegiance to the State of Maryland, and in 1780 he was enrolled as a private in the militia of St. Mary's County.1 Other than these facts, very little is known of his public or private life. He predeceased his father, and owing to the destruction of records in St. Mary's County, no administration accounts on his estate are available. No marriage has been proved, but through the process of elimination it is believed and assumed that the five children named in the will of their Smoot grandfather-- Auny, Susannah, Eleanor, James (q.v.) and Barton--are his issues. The presence of the name Barton among his children has sometime led to the supposition that this branch of the family was directly descended from Elizabeth Barton who married Captain Thomas Smoot. Barton was a favorite and popular name among the families of Southern Maryland and was carried by Barton lines other than that of the Smoot. It is therefore probable that the name came through the wife of Cuthbert Smoot whose identity has not been established. James Smoot6 (176- -1837) James Smoot, believed son of Cuthbert Smoot, was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He followed his kinsmen to Culpeper County, Virginia, and there on December 18, 1797, he conveyed slaves, household furniture, and other personal property to Biscoe Smith, of Culpeper County. The witnesses were Philip Graves, Joseph Graves, and Henry Walker. The date of this conveyance approximates apparently the time of his migration to Rowan County, North Carolina. On September 3, 1805, he purchased from Isaiah Renshaw and Esther his wife, of Rowan County, North Carolina, for the consideration of $750 land on the south waters of Bear Creek in Rowan County which had been granted by the State to Abraham Renshaw. The conveyance was substantiated by Caleb Smoot and Samuel Austin. ________________ 1 Unpublished Maryland Records, Md. His. Soc., Balto.

150 He and Jemina his wife deeded 312 acres of land "on the west side of Elk Runn a little below William Walker's old saw mill" in Virginia for the sum of £641/5/9. The deed was recorded in Madison County on January 19, 1807. Children of James Smoot 1. Mary Smoot married Gassaway Gaither.* 2. Elizabeth Smoot married Walter Gaither.* 3. Margaret Smoot married ---- Anderson. 4. Henrietta Smoot married ---- Lyons. 5. Brittania Smoot married ---- Sloan. 6. Thomas B. Smoot. 7. Eleanor Smoot married ---- Anderson. In May 1814 he and Francis Neely, Esq. with others were appointed to "lay off one year's provision for the widow and family of James Hanna, deceased". In 1815 he was a member of the commission to partition the land of Joseph Cope. On November 1, 1836, as a resident of Davie County, he sold land in Rowan County on the forks of the Yadkin River to Henry R. Austin. The deed was witnessed by H. Austin and Gassaway Gaither. During the same year he sold negroes to William Neely. The will of James Smoot was dated October 8, 1836, and proved in Davie County, North Carolina, at the August term of the court in 1837, with Gassaway Gaither as the executor. He named his son Thomas B. Smoot; daughters Mary Gaither, Margaret Anderson, Henrietta Lyons, and Brittania Sloan; granddaughter Elizabeth Gaither (daughter of Elizabeth), and the heirs of his daughter Elizabeth Gaither and the heirs of his daughter Eleanor Anderson. ________________ * For the ancestry of Gassaway and Walter Gaither, see "Anne Arundel Gentry", by Newman.

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"The Smoots of Maryland and Virginia" by Harry Wright Newman, originally published privately in Washington D.C. in 1936. This edition edited and published by Frederick K. Smoot and the Smoot Family Association, copyright 2001.

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