Capt. John Smoot
John Smoot, son of Edward Smoot and Anne Chandler, was born in 1748 at Wicomico Fields in Charles County, Maryland. He married first to Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Capt. Joseph Douglas and Catherine Musgroves. Their children were Catherine Smoot (married John Sydreham Cropper), Henry Smoot (died young), Amelia Lee Smoot (died a teenager), and John T. Smoot (paymaster, War of 1812, married Elizabeth Douglas).
John Smoot settled on Rehobeth in Dorchester County, Maryland circa 1771 where he was a planter and merchant and built Liberty Hall, a spacious Georgian mansion. On May 20, 1778 he was commissioned captain of the Third Company of the Upper Battalion of Dorchester County Militia. In 1780 he was one of the captains recommended for appointment to battalion major, but was not selected. He was commissioned captain of a Troop of Horse on May 31, 1781 and then succeeded his command to Levin Kirkman on July 2, 1781. His mercantile business also maintained a fleet of its own shops, some of which were captured by Tories during the Revolutionary War.
John Smoot's first wife died on July 19, 1787 and was buried in the private family burying ground at Liberty Hall. On April 10, 1790 he married Elizabeth Parker and their children were Joseph Edward Smoot (naval captain, War of 1812) and John Henry Smoot (married Keziah Keene). Elizabeth Smoot, widow, later married Thomas Jackson.
John Smoot served as a county magistrate (justice), 1777, 1780, 1782-1789, 1791, and represented his district at the first State Assembly of Maryland during the Revolutionary War. He served in the Lower House of the Maryland Legislature, 1777-1779, 1781, 1782-1783. He was appointed to a Commission of Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery in Dorchester County on August 1, 1784.
John Smoot controlled a number of mercantile establishments on the Eastern Shore besides the store at Northwest Fork Bridge. He had one at Crotcher's Ferry and in his concern at Vienna he had Alexander Douglas as a partner. There was a lumber firm of Douglas & Smoot, near his seat at Rehobeth, and a saw mill in Nanticoke. During his lifetime he owned nearly 4,000 acres in Dorchester and Charles Counties. He died testate in 1793 and at the time of his death he owned the sloop Peace and Plenty and his landed estate consisted of 1,687 acres in Dorchester County. He was buried in the Smoot family cemetery at Rehobeth, near Eldorado. The local chapter of the SAR was named in his honor in 1982.
References:
Clements, S. Eugene, and F. Edward Wright, The Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War (1987), p. 123.
Newman, Harry Wright, The Smoots of Maryland and Virginia (1936), pp. 17-19.
Papenfuse, Edward C., et al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789, Volume 2: I-Z (1985), pp. 755-756.
Peden, Henry C., Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Dorchester County, Maryland, 1775-1783 (1998), pp. 216-219.
Archives of Maryland, Volume 21, pp. 97, 226, 331.
Archives of Maryland, Volume 43, pp. 126, 241, 470.
Archives of Maryland, Volume 45, pp. 28 452, 492.
Archives of Maryland, Volume 48, pp. 46, 535.
Prepared 2024 by Henry C. Peden, Jr., Genealogist Emeritus, Maryland Society, Sons of the American Revolution, husband of Veronica Ann (Clarke) Peden who is a direct descendant of Capt. John Smoot.