Jemima is my 4th great-grandmother. I have know her name since I first started collecting names back when I was about 15. In newspaper articles about the 100th birthday of her daughter, Elizabeth (SMITH) JERVIS, and in Elizabeth's obituaries, is states over and over again that Elizabeth is the only child of Henry Clark SMITH and Jemima TERRY, daughter of Jeremiah of Sayville. Back then, I couldn't find Jeremiah, or at least not one that looked like he was mine. (...and we can't find Henry Clark SMITH's parents though he's supposed to be related--a great-grandson perhaps--of Col. William "Tangiers" SMITH...anyway...)
Now, thanks to the internet, I know a lot more...and in some cases I don't have proof, but I think I know her ancestry. Some of the following people and dates are taken from other's family trees and I still need to find documentation.
Jemima TERRY (daughter of Jeremiah TERRY and Elizabeth MORRIS)
b. 20 March 1772 in Sayville, Suffolk, New York
m. 1st Henry Clark SMITH (24 April 1766-17 January 1805) on 2 April 1792
issue: 1 daughter, Elizabeth SMITH (20 July 1794-22 January 1895) married Joel JERVIS
m. 2nd Matthew EDWARDS after 1808 (after his first wife, Elizabeth MORRIS died)
d. 16 June 1833
As mentioned, Jemima and Henry had only one child, Elizabeth (apparently named after Jemima's mother and both her grandmothers). Henry died in 1805. Jemima later married a widower with 8 living children, though depending on the year they married, some were out of the house by then.
We do not have a marriage date for Jemima and her second husband, Matthew, but I just discovered that it looks like Matthew's 2 wives, Elizabeth and Jemima, were first cousins. Not only that, they were double cousins. Elizabeth and Jemima share both sets of grandparents: Daniel TERRY and Elizabeth TUTHILL as well as James MORRIS and Elizabeth HARTT.
It gets confusing in the my Jemima TERRY's father, Jeremiah, has a sister named Jemima TERRY as well (who is mother to Matthew's first wife Elizabeth MORRIS). Too many Elizabeths and Jemimas.
So, Jemima and Elizabeth are double 1st cousins because a brother and sister (last name of TERRY) married a brother and sister (last name of MORRIS).
Daniel TERRY and Elizabeth TUTHILL (plus 7 other children):
--Jeremiah TERRY b. 1739 (Jeremiah married Elizabeth MORRIS)--father of my Jemima
--Jemima TERRY b. 1747 (Jemima married James MORRIS)--mother of Jemima's cousin Elizabeth
James MORRIS and Elizabeth HARTT (plus 4 other children):
--James MORRIS b. 1740 (James married Jemima TERRY)--father of Jemima's cousin Elizabeth
--Elizabeth MORRIS b. 1742 (Elizabeth married Jeremiah TERRY)--mother of my Jemima
Anyway, the children of Matthew and Elizabeth (MORRIS) EDWARDS (and therefore my Elizabeth SMITH's 2nd cousins and also her step-brothers and sisters/Jemima's 1st cousins once removed as well as step-children):
1. Jeremiah EDWARDS (14 Nov 1787-6 Jun 1815)
2. Reuben EDWARDS (26 Mar 1788-10 Nov 1863)
3. Elizabeth EDWARDS (6 Dec 1790-28 Feb 1824)
4. Charity Elizabeth EDWARDS (3 Oct 1792-14 Apr 1867)
5. Martha EDWARDS (1 Jul 1794-?)
6. Jemima EDWARDS (1 Dec 1800-Aug 1867)
7. Matthew EDWARDS (21 Mar 1802-about 1802)
8. Mary EDWARDS (14 Jan 1805-27 Oct 1861)
9. James Morris EDWARDS (4 Nov 1808-15 Oct 1894)
So, trying to piece together Jemima's life, she was born in 1772 and married in 1792 when she was 20. She had her only child, Elizabeth, about 2 years later. Jemima's husband died when she was 32 and their daughter Elizabeth was 10 years old--Elizabeth didn't marry for 10 more years. So what did mother and daughter do during those years together?
Depending on when Jemima married her 2nd husband, Elizabeth lived with step-siblings/cousins for a bit before she married in 1815. With Jemima being a widow and Matthew being a widower with young children (his wife died in December 1808, about 1 month after giving birth to their youngest child), I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they married soon after Matthew's first wife's death.
In the 1810 census Islip, Suffolk, New York the family of Matthew Edwards does look like Jemima (or some other female, of course) could be living with him. In the 1820 and 1830 censuses, there are younger children in the house, but whether those are grandchildren or children of Jemima and Matthew, I don't know. Jemima would have still been young enough to have children back then (if they married in 1809, she was only 38-39 years old.
Taking the list of Edward's children and matching them to the census record, the only child that doesn't match what we "know" is that there is one male less than 10 years old. Now, if Matthew (born 1802) didn't die in 1802, but maybe 1812, he could be that male...or perhaps Jemima and Edward did have a child together... Or Edward and his first wife Elizabeth had another unknown young son...
Jemima died in 1833 at the age of 61. Matthew died a year later.
And as far as Jemima's first husband, my ancestor, what I've already written is really all I know about him.
Henry Clark SMITH
b. 24 April 1766 probably Long Island, New York
m. Jemima TERRY on 2 April 1792 in Smithtown, Suffolk, New York
issue: 1 daughter Elizabeth SMITH
d. 17 January 1805 probably Long Island, New York
Is Henry, who is supposed to be a direct descendant (perhaps a great-grandson) of Col. William "Tangier" SMITH, from the missing branch named below? (taken from an exerpt of a piece on the Smith family at longislandgenealogy.com):
Next in order of Col. Henrys progeny came William Henry (III) who was called "Young Clerk" Smith, and then Henry (III), whose son Charles Jeffrey was a minister and a missionary to the Indians. He was thought to have died accidentally of a gunshot but years later a negro on the eve of execution for another crime confessed he had also murdered Charles Jeffrey Smith in 1770...
William Henry Smith (III), "Young Clerk Smith" was born in 1708 and became the proprietor of St. George's Manor. He was Suffolk County Clerk, and Judge of the Common Pleas. His wife was Margaret Lloyd of Lloyd's Neck. Little is known of their sons, who went off to New York, Boston and Halifax. as Tories.
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