Smailes - an old Berwick family?
I am interested in tracing my Smailes heritage (mother paternal lineage)and would welcome any communication about this.My mother Grace Elizabeth Smailes was born to William Raymond Smailes (born 27th April 1983, Chilcomptom, Somerset) and Hannah Louise Marks.The only details I have of my grandfather are that his father was William Robert SMAILES and his mother Sarah Ann ASPEY.However, I do have an old paper clipping that referred to my grandfather as being a "direct descendant of one William Robert Smailes, a son of the original Berwick family (who were ship’s chandlers), who went to Bristol a long time ago, and whose descendants are now fairly numerous in the Bristol area, nearly all being seafaring or connected with shipping in some way or other, and one of them William Roberts Smailes (my grandfather’s) great great uncle was a Master f the Royal navy, and was a prisoner in the Bastille for 10 years up to the time it was burnt, and by rendering a special service at that event was given a free pardon and passage to England, also a special medal was struck for him by Napoleon".