| Notes |
- Richard Smith was the first Englishman to settle in the South County area, probably around 1637. John "Quidnessett" Greene lived with him in the early days of the outpost, later testifying that there were no other English people within 20 miles of their place. Part of his land is the present location of "Smith's Castle" on Post Rd. in North Kingstown, althought the present homestead was built at a later time.
Richard Smith (of "Smith's Castle" on Post Road, just north of Wickford village in North Kingstown), also owned land on Long Island under sovereignty of the Dutch West India Company. Smith established trading posts near the Pequot Path (Post Road) in Kingstowne, and also in New Amsterdam (New York). He frequently traveled back and forth between the two locations, and established strong personal and business relationships with individuals at New Amsterdam.
Smith's trading post at Wickford was also the site where Roger Williams preached to the Narragansett Indians. A stone marker and plaque next to a picnic area on Post Road memorializes Williams's ministry among the Native Americans.
St. Paul's Church in Wickford, RI, has a memorial tablet to Richard Smith. It mentions his daughter "Katharine" and her husband Gysbert op Dyck.
The following is from "The Rhode Island Atlas" by Marion I. Wright and Robert J. Sullivan, Providence: RI Publications Society, 1982, p. 148: "Richard Smith (c. 1596 - 1666) came to Cocumscussoc from Taunton in 1637, and settling on land 'about a mile in length' purchased from the Indians, he built the first English-style house in the southern wilderness of the colony. He joined Roger Williams as a local trader and later bought out Williams and a trader named Wilcox. An energetic man, Smith maintained three homes: a house in Taunton; the house at Cocumscussoc, built with timbers carried across the Bay from Taunton; and a house on Long Island on land purchased from the Dutch. Smith bought Dutch trade goods. His daughter married a Dutchman named Updike whom she met during a family stay on Long Island; Smith's son Richard, Jr., died childless, and consequently the plantation passed through four generations of Updikes until 1812, when Wilkins Updike was forced to sell in order to honor the financial backing promised a brother.
"Richard Smith, Sr., started one of the colony's first dairy herds, and for 300 years the dairy tradition continued on the estate. Joan Smith, his wife, used a recipe from her home in Cheshire, England, for making the famous Rhode Island cheeses of the Narragansett Country.
"When Major Richard Smith, Jr., (c. 1630 - 1692) died, his estate included an inventory of 3 horses, 30 sheep, 20 hogs, and 135 cattle. No goats were listed on the inventory, but Smith had claimed payment for 100 goats slaughtered to feed the militia which gathered at Cocumscussoc and returned there after the Great Swamp Fight during King Philip's War. Smith granted freedom to three adult slaves in his will and directed that a slave couple's five children be freed after 30 years of service.
"Lodowick Updike I lived on the plantation between 1692 and 1736. The name Wickford had been applied to the general area since 1664, but when Updike laid out the first house lots in the present-day village of Wickford, for a while the village was known as Updike's Newtown. His son Daniel (died 1757) was in charge of the plantation between 1736 and 1757. Trained as a lawyer, he served as attorney general from 1722 to 1728; the fine furniture and clocks which can be seen at Smith's Castle date from his period of prosperity. Daniel Updike maintained contacts with Newport, and he was the first signer of the "Laws and Orders" of the cultural society which was the parent organization of the Redwood Library there."
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Abt 1596 - 1666 (~ 70 years)