Ruhamah KIRBY

ABT 1640 - AFT Jul 1707

• BIRTH: ABT 1640, Sandwich, Barnstable, MA
• DEATH: AFT Jul 1707

• MARRIAGE: ABT 1665, Dartmouth, Bristol, MA

1.  Mehitabel SMITH
2. +Deliverance SMITH
3.  Gershom SMITH
4.  Judah SMITH
5.  Hannah SMITH
6.  Sarah SMITH
7.  Deborah SMITH
8.  Eliashib SMITH

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                 |  |__
 _Richard KIRBY _|
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|--Ruhamah KIRBY 
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|_Jane __________|
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                    |__

[3802] John Smith, Jr. had thirteen children by his two wives. Unfortunately, there is
insufficient evidence to properly assign each child to the correct mother. From
Plymouth records we know that the first five belong to Deborah (Hassadiah, John,
Josiah, Eliazer, and Hezekiah). From John's will it seems clear that Ruhamah
bore Hannah, Sarah and Deborah. It's not now possible to prove the maternity
of Judah, Gershom, Deliverance, Mehitable or Eliashib. I have arbitrarily chosen
to assign them to Ruhamah.

"Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records 1687-1745"
H.L. Peter Rounds, in:
Massachusetts Town, Probate and Vital Records CD-ROM
Broderbund, 1999, Vol. 4, p. 91
"Ratification of earlier agrmt. abt. settl. of Est. of RICHARD KERBY of Dart., "somtime more yn Ninteen
years since Died Intestate," said agrmt. having been btwn. Richard's chldn: Richard & Recompense
Kerby; Sarah Allen & Ruhamath Smith (both of Dart. & both widows) & Jane Leander of Sandwich (now
dcd.), dtd. 21 July 1707, recorded 9 Oct. 1722. Witns: Henery Howland & Samuel Marehu [4:119]."
"Accept, of settl. of Est. of RICHARD KERBY of Dart. by his grchldn: Tabatha Waite, Deborah Leander,
Sarah Leander & Joseph Leander, chldn. of Jane Leander late of Sandwich dcd., dtd. 9 Oct. 1707,
29 March 1708 & 31 March 1708. Witns; Joseph Tripp & John Tripp; John Lapham, Jr. & Judah Smith;
William Soule & Samuel Merehou [4:120]."

"The Kirbys of New England",
Melatiah Everett Dwight,
The Trow Print, New York, 1898, pp 229-238
"Ruhamah Kirby (Richard), born ----; died after July 21, 1707; married, as second wife,
Lieutenant John Smith of Dartmouth, Mass., born 1618; died Jan. 15, 1692. He was at Plymouth
as early as 1629...Lieutenant John Smith married, first, Jan. 4, 1648-49, Deborah Howland,
daughter of Arthur Howland, by whom he had five children, viz., Hassadyah, John, Josiah,
Eleazer, and Hezekiah. His wife Deborah died after Oct. 16, 1665." (Dwight attributes the
remaining eight children to Ruhamah.)

Kirby & Smith Family Genealogies
Series 1: Biographical and Genealogical
"Howland-Kirby Family Papers", Catalog #RG 5/067;
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399

"Arthur Howland of Plymouth, Mass., 1640"
Robert S. Wakefield and Robert M. Sherman
NGSQ v71, no2 (Jun 1983)
"John married, second, Ruhamah Kirby, daughter of Richard Kirby of Dartmouth, and had
several more children."

"Certain Comeoverers"
Crapo, Henry Howland
New Bedford, Mass.: E. Anthony & Sons, 1912; p168
"His second wife, Ruhamah Kirby, was, perhaps, less rigid in her Quakerism, or more amenable...
By his two wives he had thirteen children and his descendants are many."

"New England Marriages Prior To 1700"
Clarence A. Torrey,
(as found on NEHGS CD-ROM, Boston, 2001)
"SMITH, John (1618-1692) & 2/wf Ruhamah [KIRBY] (-1707+); ca 1665/6; Dartmouth"