WILLIAM SMYTH (7546)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] and his wife ELIZABETH MUDD lived in times of religious turmoil. Some background of these times in the mid 1500s in Hadleigh, Suffolk County, England will give you some insight into their life. In a book by Sir Roy Strong called The Story of Britain, published in 1996, the drastic change to the whole religious structure is explained as follows.

     "When King Henry VIII informed Cardinal Wolsey that he wished his marriage to be annulled by the Pope, it was a time when the experience of going to church was as it had been for centuries. The congregation gathered in the nave to hear the Latin mass. The walls and the windows of the church were bright with paintings and stained glass depicting the gospel stories and the lives of the saints. There were carved images of the Virgin and saints before which candles were lit as prayers were said asking for their intercession in heaven. The nave was divided from the chancel by a screen beyond which the laity did not pass, and above which was suspended a life-size image of Christ on the cross flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John. This screen was known as the rood. Beyond lay the chancel, the area of the church sacred to the priest, with a stone altar against the east end. Sometimes near the altar there would be relics of saints exhibited, bones or fragments of clothing, kept within a container of some precious material. The altar was adorned with rich hangings which were changed according to the seasons of the church's year, white for Easter or red for the feasts of the martyrs. The altar was the focus of the entire church, for on it was re-enacted in the mass each day the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The priest wore embroidered vestments, incense was burned and at solemn moments bells were rung. Above the altar a small piece of consecrated bread, the host, was exhibited within a suspended container called a pyx, covered by a veil or cloth. In this way, even outside the mass, Christ's body was perpetually present, heaven came down to earth. Medieval Catholic Christianity was a vivid faith approached through things seen and the senses.

     Half a century later that experience was to be very different. Although the stained glass might still remain because of the expense of replacing it with plain glass, the interior was virtually stripped bare, every painted or sculptured image either painted over, taken away or defaced, the walls whitewashed and adorned only with biblical texts. All candles were eliminated. Over the rood screen instead of the cross there was the royal arms. Within the chancel the stone altar and pyx had gone. Instead there was a wooden table used only very occasionally when Holy Communion, the service which replaced the mass, took place, when it was taken down into the body of the church with only a linen cloth laid over it. The priest was no longer attired with ornate vestments but wore a surplice. On most Sundays the service would have been one of morning prayer, said not in Latin but in English and in which the congregation took part. Lessons were read from an English bible and the main focus was no longer the chancel but the pulpit from which the sermon was delivered. A Christianity which had appealed to the eye had been replaced by one whose prime organ was the ear and whose aim was to hear and receive the word of God".

     As early as 1527 there were Protestant reformers in Hadleigh preaching the views of Luther. One of these was Thomas Bilney who inveighed against pilgrimages and the worship of saints and relics. Another outspoken critic of the Catholic practices was Thomas Rose, curate of Hadleigh Parish Church, whose preaching incited a gang of men to burn the Holy Rood of Dovercourt. However the majority of Suffolk inhabitants were more conservative and most of the laity and clergy continued to support the Catholic Church. But in 1534 King Henry VIII replaced the Pope as head of the English Catholic Church. "Peter's Pence", the traditional payment to Rome was no longer demanded. King Henry VIII remained a Catholic himself but started a program to dissolve some of the Catholic monasteries mainly to obtain revenue. The royal injunction of 1538 reflected the preaching of the reformers and it was forbidden to place candles before images in the churches. The clergy were encouraged to install English bibles. Hadleigh Parish Church went even further and started including English in their service instead of the traditional Latin. They were one of the first churches in England to do so.

     When King Henry VIII died in 1547 and his son Edward became king it cleared the way for complete reformation as he was a Protestant. All images and shrines were banished from parish churches as well as all processions. Services were to be in English and all Catholic equipment used in their services were to be removed and destroyed. By 2 years after the death of King Henry VIII practically everything had gone. By 1552 the term mass and the wearing of vestments were abandoned and alters were replaced by tables. Even wills reflected the changes as they no longer invoked the Saints in their wording

     But King Edward died in July 1553 and was succeeded by Queen Mary, a staunch Catholic. So all of Edward's religious provisions were repealed and the churches were told to replace all the Catholic images, books, banners and the Catholic services as well.

     This was a huge setback for the Reformers and Protestants paid dearly for their religious beliefs during the reign of Queen Mary. Nearly 30 individuals from Suffolk County alone were martyred during this period. This was the atmosphere in Hadleigh for young WILLIAM SMYTH when he was about ten years old in 1555. Queen Mary was commanding everyone to recant their Protestant faith and return to Catholicism. She was particularly harsh with the Protestant ministers and for her extreme cruelty became known as "Bloody Mary". Anybody who would not recant their Protestantism were branded as heretics and many were hung. But she reserved the worst fate for the Protestant ministers who would not abandon their Protestant beliefs and she had these burned alive at the stake.

Doctor Rowland Taylor rebuking Catholic priest about to say mass

St. Mary's Parish Church, 1555 A.D.

Hadleigh, Suffolk, England

      Imagine the scene in Hadleigh on the day in 1555 when Doctor Rowland Taylor, rector of St. Mary's Parish Church in Hadleigh, when he told the authorities he would not recant his faith. Queen Bloody Mary was giving him one more chance as they piled the faggots of firewood around him. But he wouldn't change his mind and so the fires were lit. A friend of Rowland Taylor rushed forward and struck a blow to his head to render him unconscious and relieve him from further suffering.

Martyrdom of Doctor Rowland Taylor, Rector

St. Mary's Parish Church, 1555 A.D.

Hadleigh, Suffolk, England

      Now try to imagine the effect this would have on ten year old WILLIAM SMYTH to see the rector of his church, and undoubtedly a friend of his father, being murdered. It would be a huge factor in his understanding of religious freedom and the lack thereof.. Today there is a monument in honour of the memory of Doctor Rowland Taylor on a small hill in the outskirts of Hadleigh known as Gallows Hill. Did WILLIAM SMYTH really see all this happening? Of course we will never know. But it is most likely, as in a very small town of a few hundred people it is hard to believe he would not be there unless his father had forbidden hin to go.

     Luckily for the Protestant faith and the reform movement Queen Mary's reign was short. If it had continued probably the whole protestant movement would have been snuffed out for years. Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne late in 1558. Being a Protestant she reversed everything and the churches were once again ordered to remove all the "Papist Trappings".

     In the period of Protestant acceptance after Queen Mary died and was followed by Queen Elizabeth, the splintering of Protestantism assumed bewildering proportions. There were Levelers, Diggers, Ranters, Seekers, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchists and Lollards, none of which survived into the next century. Then there were the Quakers, Independents (Congregationalists) Baptists and Presbyterians. All of these survived in some form. And the original Church of England which had originally been Catholic changed to what we would know later as Anglican.

     How the average person sorted all this out is hard to understand. Presumably the SMYTHS became Independents but maybe not in WILLIAM SMYTH's time. We know he had his children baptized at the Parish Church in Hadleigh which was still Church of England but Protestant by that time. Also his son ANTHONY continued at that church. Maybe it wasn't until JOHN SMYTH (his grandson) that he and his wife ALICE swung to the INDEPENDENTS. It is possible that even he didn't switch and only his widow ALICE joined the emigration to America for other reasons.

     So it must have been a time of tremendous turmoil and confusion. All of the Suffolk County Church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials start in the late 1550s. It was King Henry VIII who in the 1540s issued orders to the churches to keep a record of baptisms, marriages and burials. However the paper and ink were so poor that most of the records from this period disintegrated by the 1550s. They were then ordered to use parchment so that is why most of the English church records start around 1550. In the case of Hadleigh Parish Church the baptisms start in 1558, the marriages in 1559 and the burials in 1558. It shows the marriage of WILLIAM SMYTH and ELIZABETH MUDD on 27 January 1565 and is the third entry in the marriage register. It is interesting to note the first entry in the register was in 1560 and was JOHN SMYTH and ANN CLIFFORD. The first SMYTH baptism on 2 March 1560 was ANNE SMYTH so that would be their daughter. The first burial record in the register is THOMAS SMYTH in 1558. Undoubtedly these would be related to WILLIAM SMYTH in some way but there is little chance we will ever prove the relationship.

      The baptism register shows all the children of WILLIAM SMYTH and ELIZABETH MUDD. That is where the first record of twins shows up. But as WILLIAM SMYTH would have been born about 1545, before the register was started there is no way we can find out his father's name for sure and whether there were twins in his family. As a guess his father was probably the THOMAS SMYTH who died in 1558.

     Some history about Hadleigh might be appropriate as we know so little about WILLIAM SMYTH himself and his wife ELIZABETH MUDD. It is a very ancient town. The first Danish king of East Anglia, King Guthrum, is said to have been buried in Hadleigh in 890 AD. He had become a Christian and there must have been a church in Hadleigh at that time.

     Moving up to Norman times we can find Hadleigh in the Domesday Book. After his conquest of England in 1066 William the Conqueror spread his Norman knights around the country especially on the west and the north, to form a protective buffer zone. In 1085 he gave orders for a census to be taken to assess who was on the land and what resources were available for possible taxation. The resulting books were known as the Domesday Books and they were very thorough. He even sent a second person into each district to check up on the first person and make sure they were doing it correctly. The books were written in Latin and told who was holding the land at the time and who had been there before. It gave the number of men, acreage, cattle, ploughs and slaves. This book has now been translated and republished for historians and I have the two volumes for Suffolk County in my library. The original Latin is shown on the left page and the translation opposite on the right page.

     Hadleigh was in the Half-Hundred of Cosford. The Hundreds and Half-Hundreds were just a way to divide the country into sections as we would think of Townships within a County. In the Domesday Book for Suffolk County it shows the following. " Holy Trinity held Hadleigh before 1066; 5 carucates ( a carucate was approximately 120 acres or another name was a "hide") of land as a manor. Always 22 villagers. Then 26 smallholders, now 19. Always 2 slaves. 2 ploughs in lordship. Then 15 men's ploughs, now 10. Always 2 mills, meadows, 16 acres. Now 2 cobs12 cattle, 120 sheep and 20 pigs. Value then £12, now £15. A church with 1 carucate of free land, 1 plough, 1 mill value 12s. 1 freeman before 1066; 60 acres. Now 3 freemen dwell on the same land. they have always had 1 plough. Meadows, 1 acre. 1 freeman under patronage and in jurisdiction before 1066; 60 acres. Now 3 freemen dwell on the same land. They have 1 plough, meadows, 2 1/2 acres. Value then 8s; now 10s. The whole has 1 league in length and 7 furlongs in width; 1 1/2 p in tax."

      Hadleigh was granted by King William to the Archbishop Lanfranc. Although the Domesday Book did not list the names of the Freemen or Smallholders it does show in the general area 3 persons who were "smiths" by trade. In Latin the trade was known as "faber". The three men in this trade were Bondi, Edwin and Godric.

     As this was 500 years before "our" WILLIAM SMYTH was in Hadleigh there is no way of knowing how far back his and "our" ancestors went in this area. However we have the history of Hadleigh from the very late medieval times held in the Hadleigh Guild Hall Archives. In 1438 William Clopton, Lord of Toppesfield Manor in Hadleigh, granted his rights to the market and fairs to the town. This gave the citizens of Hadleigh economic independence from Manorial jurisdiction.

     Parliament granted King Henry VIII a Lay Subsidy in April 1523 to support his war with France. In the Archives are the Lay Subsidy Returns for Hadleigh for 1523-1527. Mentioned as paying their subsidy are WILLIAM SMYTH, widower, ANDREW SMYTH and WILLIAM SMYTH. The first WILLIAM SMYTH must have been quite well off as he paid £2 subsidy. The most anyone paid was £13 and there were only about half a dozen men who paid between £2 and £10. ANDREW and the other WILLIAM SMYTH each paid only 4 pence. This indicates they were artificers, labourers or servants earning less than £1 (20 shilling at that time) per year. From this time frame, any one of these three could be the father of "our" WILLIAM SMYTH.

     There were five Guilds in Hadleigh at this time. They were not Trade Guilds as we might suppose. They were voluntary semi religious institutions. They were taxed by the Lay Subsidy of King Henry VIII in 1523 based on their "stock" or worth. The five Guilds were Trinity, Corpus Christi, Saint John, Saint Thomas and Our Lady. They were societies in which associated members pledged themselves to defend each other against injury, to receive each other at times of distress and to secure the offering up of masses for the souls of each other after death. They were dissolved in 1547 because of their religious aspect at the time King Henry VIII closed all the monasteries. Their funds were then used as a financial co-op where former members could borrow money.

     Evidently the town had been trying to obtain a Charter so it could be incorporated as a Borough..In 1571 the old parish book shows the following entry.

     "Payd to JOHN SMYTHE for that he hath layd out about the charter iiijl." (£4)

     However it was not granted at that time as again in 1586 we find the following entry.

     "That there resteth in the hands of William Forthe, gent, xl (£10), which dew to the towne, and is parte of that money which was gathered for the Charter".

     It wasn't until 1618 that they succeeded in obtaining the Charter which was granted by King James I. They raised a fund of £205 15s 9d most of which was used in paying fees in London. The Charter of Incorporation provided for a Mayor, 7 Aldermen and 16 Burgesses and these together would form the Common Council. It is interesting to note that if a person refused a nomination to the mayoralty he was fined £40 and if he didn't pay this he was imprisoned without bail until he paid his fine. The penalty for an Alderman or Burgess refusing the nomination was £10.

     On 18 February 1619 a grant of arms and crest was made to Hadleigh by William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms. The wording of this grant not only confirmed Hadleigh in its new position as a Borough but it highlighted the importance of the manufacture of woollen cloth by incorporating 3 woolsacks in the crest.

     The first Mayor was John Gaell and the first council met on 30 December 1618 in the Guild Hall. As Clerk of the market the Mayor regulated weights and prices of controlled goods such as ale and bread. The population of Hadleigh in 1618 would have been about 2200 having grown from about 1400 in 1523.

     Many of the town's regulations passed by the Council were concerned with the town's trading activities on which its affluence depended. They also wanted to keep out "foreigners" (paupers from other parishes) who might become a drain on the town's poor rates. Fines were imposed for "annoying" the streets with hogs, logs, blocks of wood and timber, muck, dung or earth.. In the central area of town where the houses were close together, all new roofs or repaired roofs had to be covered with tiles or slates and not straw or reed thatch, while chimneys had to be brick-built from foundation to top. These regulations were a fire precaution By becoming a Borough, Hadleigh was able to set up a Court of Record for the recovery of small debts. The first "Book of the Peace" dating from 1619-1625 still survives.

     King Charles II wanted to gain more power over the Boroughs and started to revoke charters in 1683. Hadleigh escaped this until 1687. They thought it would be a good idea to voluntarily surrender their charter before they were forced to do so. They petitioned the Attorney General for a writ of "Quo Warranto" basing their claim on the fact the Corporation had been guilty of using their funds for their own purposes rather than for charitable objects. This idea backfired when the Privy Council hastily accepted their surrender. When most other towns had their Charters restored by King James II in 1689 Hadleigh was not granted theirs.

     Hadleigh made a renewed application in 1701 and raised £100 but it was to no avail. A very complete history of Hadleigh is contained in the book written by W. A. B. Jones, Hadleigh Through the Ages, which is in my library.

                              SOURCE of INFORMATION

     Church marriage register of Hadleigh Parish Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk County, England.. These particular records are transcripts made of Suffolk marriages 1559-1812 and are found in LDS film # 0991935. Copies of the pertinent pages are in my files.

     Baptisms, marriages and burials from the original registers of Hadleigh Parish Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk County, England are found in LDS film # 0919574. Copies are in my files.

     HISTORY OF SUFFOLK COUNTY by David Dymond and Peter Northeast. Published in 1995 by Phillimore, Chichester, England. A copy is in my library.

     THE STORY OF BRITAIN by Sir Roy Strong. Published in 1996 by the International Publishing Co. New York. This book is held by the Countryside Public Library in Clearwater, Florida and a copy is in my library..

Note that all the dates shown for births are actually baptismal dates. However they will be very close as most parents tried to have their children baptized very quickly because of the very high death rate in infancy.

     DOMESDAY BOOK ordered in 1085 by William the Conqueror. Originally in Latin it has now been translated and republished. Editor is John Morris and the publishers Phillimore Publishing Co. in Chichester, England. The 2 volumes for Suffolk County are in my library.

     HADLEIGH THROUGH THE AGES by W. A. B. Jones. Published in 1977 by East Anglia Magazines. This book is in my library.

     THE BOROUGH OF HADLEIGH by Sue Andrews. Published privately in 1990. This book is in my library. Use of information from this book was kindly granted by Sue Andrews

     THE PEOPLE OF HADLEIGH PAY THEIR TAXES by Sue Andrews. Published privately in 1994. This book is in my library and use of information from the book was granted by Sue Andrews.

     VARIOUS FILES FROM HADLEIGH GUILD HALL ARCHIVES. These are records of the Collectors for Town Rents, Feoffment Market Accounts, Charity Accounts and Disbursements to the Poor in the Alms Houses. Photocopies of many of these are in my files. Sue Andrews, an Archivist at the Guild Hall Library assisted us in reviewing these unusual and valuable records.

     ELIZABETH MUDD (7547).SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] ELIZABETH (7547)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] was born circa 1545 in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England. ELIZABETH (7547)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

     Children of WILLIAM¹ SMYTH (7546)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] and ELIZABETH MUDD (7547)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] all born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, were as follows:

              2           i.           WILLIAM² SMYTH (7548).SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] WILLIAM (7548)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] was born 4 November 1565. WILLIAM (7548)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

              3           ii.         ELIZABETH SMYTH (7549).MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] ELIZABETH (7549)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] was born 6 January 1567. ELIZABETH (7549)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

              4           iii.        ROSE SMYTH (7550).MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] ROSE (7550)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] was born 26 September 1568. ROSE (7550)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

              5           iv.         ANN SMYTH (7551).MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] ANN (7551)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] was born 26 September 1568. ANN (7551)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] died 2 January 1569 in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, at age at an unknown age.

             + 6     v.          ANTHONY SMYTH (7530)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] ANTHONY (7530)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] was born 19 December 1569. He married ROSE HOWARD (7531)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] , daughter of THOMAS HOWARD (7556)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] and JOAN BR------ (7557),SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] 17 September 1592 in St. Mary's Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk, England. ANTHONY (7530)SMYTHWILLIAM (7546) (1545- )[@] died 19 June 1609 at age 39.

              7           vi.         ABIGAIL SMYTH (7552).MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] ABIGAIL (7552)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] was born 14 January 1571. ABIGAIL (7552)MUDDELIZABETH (7547) (1545- )[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

              8           vii.       ANN SMYTH (7553).SMYTHWILLIAM (7548) (1565- )[@] ANN (7553)SMYTHWILLIAM (7548) (1565- )[@] was born 14 January 1571. ANN (7553)SMYTHELIZABETH (7549) (1567- )[@] died 15 January 1573 in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, at age 2.

              9           viii.      ABRAHAM SMYTH (7554).SMYTHELIZABETH (7549) (1567- )[@] ABRAHAM (7554)SMYTHROSE (7550) (1568- )[@] was born 14 May 1572. ABRAHAM (7554)SMYTHROSE (7550) (1568- )[@] died 14 May 1572 in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, at age at an unknown age.

              10         ix.         SUSAN SMYTH (7555).SMYTHROSE (7550) (1568- )[@] SUSAN (7555)SMYTHANN (7551) (1568-1569)[@] was born 14 May 1572. SUSAN (7555)SMYTHANN (7551) (1568-1569)[@] died at an unknown date at age at an unknown age.

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