Re: Elizabeth Smith, wife of John Corbin

Alternative tie-ins to the Smyth/Smith family include another Grace Booth, as well as your hyothesized Grace Butler, and at least another James Taylor.

The connecting link is the Underwoods.

Capt. John Upton was married to Margaret -- who may have been an Underwood by birth or by prior marriage. On 11/18/1651 Upton (by then a Lieutenant) sold 400 acres to William Underwood. There are multiple Wm. Underwoods; I believe this fellow was the brother or brother-in-law of Margaret He may also have raised some orphaned children not his own.

Upton's 1652 will then names "William, Elizabeth, Sarah and Margaret Underwood" as beneficiaries of among other things 1500 acres of land. It also refers to the girls as daughters-in-law. That would make sense if Wm. Was a brother-in-law.

Upton dies between 1652 and 1657.

In 1657, by-now-Capt. William Underwood is among those who have to sign off on the marriage agreement OK'g widow Margaret Upton's re-marriage to Capt. Thomas Lucas. Also signing off is Col. Moore Fauntleroy.

That Underwood needs to sign off indicates that Underwood is otherwise an heir. As is Fauntleroy.

Fauntleroy had gained some of his land by, e.g., ferrying Underwoods across the Atlantic. He also married Mary Underwood (sometimes called Mary Hill, for reasons unknown to me at this point).

Margaret Lucas is then seen intervening to facilitate the divorce of daughter Elizabeth from Dr. James Taylor. Margaret apparently disapproved of Elizabeth's preferred choice, husband #2 Francis Slaughter. Margaret's 1658 will leaves Francis 10 shillings and a pair of gloves. :)

The will of Margaret Upton Lucas refers to a daughter Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nee Underwood has four marriages: the possibly-arranged one to Dr. James Taylor, then Capt. Francis Slaughter, then, after Slaughter dies, to Col. John Catlett, who also died, before settling on her final husband Amory Butler.

The undated Rappahannock County will of Francis Slaughter IDs his brother-in-law Moore Fauntleroy. The will designates as "assistant" to his loving wife his "good friend and brother" Humphrey Booth. In reality Humphrey Booth was a brother-in-law, not a brother -- Booth married Margaret Underwood, sister or stepsister of Elizabeth and Mary.

In 1663 Margaret is giving gifts to her son Francis Jr., who she acknowledges was treated poorly by his "father-in-law," and both her daughter "Elizabeth Catlett" and to a granddaughter "Grace Booth" with John Catlett designated to acknowledge the latter. Margaret refers to her "son Booth."

So all three of Francis Slaughter, Moore Fauntleroy, and Humphrey Booth, were linked by marrying Underwood girls, one of whom (Elizabeth, Slaughter's widow) went on to marry a Butler.

The will of Elizabeth Butler in Sittingbourn Parish dated 16 June, 1673 notes her son Francis Slaughter and a "cousin," Humphrey Booth.

To sum: Grace Booth was the niece by marriage of Moore Fauntleroy.William Smyth/Smith, son of Col. Tobias Smith and Phoebe Fauntleroy, was the blood nephew of Moore Fauntleroy.William Smith and Grace Booth would have been about the same age and in the same social circle.

As a side note, just to continue the connections, Moore Fauntleroy's niece Phoebe Smith went on to marry a William Slaughter who I strongly suspect is related to Francis. And a descendant of William Underwood went on to marry Elizabeth Slaughter, daughter of Francis.

And at least one James Taylor recurs as a figure in Underwood documents including as an apparent longtime friend of Margaret. I say "at least"

In sum, seems to me, esp. considering the uncommonness of the name you note, more than likely that Grace Booth is the "Grace" who married William Smith.

Alternatively, if it was indeed Grace Butler daughter of your speculated Westmoreland planter, there is an alternate connection in that it looks like Amory Butler had a brother John. If the two John Butlers are the same, the family of William Smith would, again, be linked through marriage. Grace Butler would have been the non-blood-niece of Elizabeth nee Underwood, the sister of William Smith's aunt-by-marriage.

Note that the girls sometimes couldn't be all that choosy. A mother of three girls suddenly widowed might not be very "marketable" despite her breeding. Her girls even less so. Typically they stood to inherit far less than the boys, and oldest boys got the biggest chunks. If either a son or daughter defied parental matchmaking, they could be cut out and go from gentry to hardscrabble in a hurry.If so, subsequent generations of their descendants might not make a great effort to keep track of their once-"nobler" lines.

Also, a couple might have enough interaction and connection to be attracted to each other and marry for love and/or householding despite one or both not being in the inheritance pipeline. It certainly looks like the Underwood-Fauntleroy kids kept gravitating back to the less-well-off Slaughters.

For every rags-to-riches story in America there are often one or more in a family who don't do as well, "marry down," or suffer some misfortune entirely not their fault. In other words it's a mistake to equate landholdings and lineage since there's a lot of reasons they diverge.