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Name Origins - Smee | |||||||||
A Different Genealogical research Company gave this Information :- Early records of the the name mention Edward de Smye who was listed in
the Yorkshire Poll tax returns of 1379. Thomas Smye was baptised at St
James, Clerkenwell, London in 1573. 1574 saw John Smy of Berkshire
registered at Oxford University. The ‘Book of Surnames’ by Weekley has the following entry: SMEED,SMEETH,SMEDES,
Beaumont lies on the Cut river at Hamford Water, the inlet has been in use for transportation since Roman times. Beaumont Quay was built in 1832 by Guy's Hospital, who owned land in the parish, using stone recycled from the old London Bridge. The quay, shown at right, operated until 1925 all of the buildings except one limekiln and the store building are now gone, and the area is now a declared conservation area. This Quay was built to ease the operation of the Limekilns in the area, these kilns produced lime by burning Chalk that had been ferried across the Thames Estuary from Kent, and it is possible that this explains the Smee Family "migration" South of the river. It was at one time thought that as the Cut was improved by Dutch labourers in 1832 it may have been the Family Source, but my Patriarch appears in the Census as having been born in Essex in 1790. Looking at the locality now it is very difficult to think there was sufficient wood in the area to support such an Industry, so one has to assume the current environment is actually a post industrial effect. The earliest traces I have of Smee families in Essex are
Both of the above had roots in Cambridge. Another major Smee family tree were responsible for the presence in the Bank of England and Dr Alfred Smee, the Victorian Physicist, Surgeon and Botanist and also many members of the Smee families now in Australia. This family came from further North around Sudbury which is on the Essex/Suffolk Border. A recent discovery has been the finding that in the early 18th century Hare coursing was regularly held in Suffolk at a Place called "the Smee" One theory was that the groups of Smee families may in fact have been separate for a very long time, with the Southern Essex groups coming from Cambridge whilst the Northern Essex groups came from Suffolk. Some Smee families in both Australia and the USA gave Ireland as their origin, some may have been Irish but they equally may have been originally from England and either migrated to Ireland, some certainly had Military backgrounds, the number of English Settlers in Ireland who then removed to the US in the "blight years" is constantly overlooked by Family researchers seeking fashionable roots. Smee is certainly not recognisable as a Celtic name. The Smee Name in the USA seems to have several points of origin ~ A family variously spelt as Smeigh, Schmeig and a few other derivations came from the Palantine area of Germany, this was what is now known as Bavaria and some surrounding areas, and adopted the Smee spelling over a number of years. Other US Families using Smee came from Austria / Czechoslovakia / Bohemia / Croatia according to the US Censuses, it think the point of origin depended more on their political affiliations and the timing rather than indicating a wide diaspora. This site also has some spelling variations in the database - Smeed and Smeeth, these are mostly those where either Census entries or BMD Indices have been poorly transcribed leading me up blind alleys, one day I may well have time to further document these families, but retirement is still a good way ahead. The Smees Family which were in the Portsmouth, Hampshire area from the 19th Century had migrated from Staffordshire where they had used the name Smeeth Returning to our relationship to Donald - From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) : Smew, n. [Perhaps for ice-mew.] (Zo["o]l.) Which is correct, if you ignore the Female Colouring, but what would you
expect from a Dictionary that can't spell Colour? Small, fish eating, diving duck-like bird, has a thick pointed bill with a jagged edge. Male has a black face and a V-shaped black patch beneath the crest. Its back wings and buttocks are dark grey to black. The breast is white and has two lines on the side that extend forward from the back. Females have a brownish head and a white cheek and chin patch. The breast
is light grey and the rest of the body is dark grey.
Pete Smee or the Star formerly known as Camelopardalis RA 11h39m19.90s Dec 85° 28' | ||||||||||
I would like to think that the Smee name in England is Anglo-Saxon and the family originated in
the Village of Smeeth in Kent, the Village Church can be seen at left.
Some Smee Families are still extant in Kent, although mostly along the Thames
Estuary which may mean they crossed from Essex or vice-versa. However early
references to the Smee name (as Opposed to Smeeth) in Kent are actually VERY
rare and even the 18C entries I suspect are part of the Sudbury Smee family
retiring to Kent from their labours in London. If anyone has a document
indicating any Smee Families in Kent prior to 1750 I would be VERY
interested
My own branch were around
the Beaumont-cum-Moze area at the beginning of the 19th Century, the name
derives from the merging of the Parishes of Beaumont and Moze in 1678, when
the stone from Moze Church was re-used to restore
