History Close At Hand: Madam Martha Smith, Brookhaven’s 17th-century leading light
By Beverly C. Tyler
She was baptized Martha Tunstall on July 2, 1652, daughter of Henry Tunstall of Putney, County of Surrey, England. She moved with her family to Tangier, Africa where she married William Smith. From her marriage on Nov. 26, 1675, until her death in Setauket in 1709 at the age of 57, Martha led a life dedicated to her husband, family, business interests and community.
She gave birth to 13 children and buried seven of them; journeyed — in a time of discomfiting and perilous travel — from Tangier, back to England, to Ireland for the birth of a child, and finally to America. She raised her family in, at first, primitive conditions, and assisted her husband in his businesses which often involved his traveling from home over long periods of time. Throughout all this time she became well respected and loved as Lady of the Manor and was eventually widowed at the age of 52, successfully continuing her husband’s business interests including off-shore whaling and was an acknowledged community leader.
Madam Martha Smith, as historian Kate Strong referred to her, or Lady Martha Smith, as she is referred to in many documents, is not listed in “The Encyclopedia of Women’s History in America”, nor is she mentioned in “Long Island Women: Activists and Innovators”, both excellent books on history’s neglected gender. However, she was a woman of wealth and stature on Long Island and especially in the communities of Setauket and Mastic where she and her husband maintained their residences.
Col. William “Tangier” Smith was born in February of 1654, in Higham-Ferrers, Northamptonshire, England.
Tangier, which had been ceded to England as part of Queen Charlotte’s dowry, was an important port, or so it was thought, until abandoned and burned by England in 1683, after both Spain and Portugal refused to take it off England’s hands. As detailed by Chester Osborne, William went to the crown city of Tangier, Africa when he was 20-years old. A year later he married Martha Tunstall. He was elected to the post of mayor on Nov. 11, 1682. The young couple returned to England in 1683, and in 1686, sailed from Ireland for America with three children.
William and Martha arrived in New York in the fall of 1686 with two children, 7-year-old Henry and 5-year-old Martha. Another child, Hibernia, had been born in Cork, Ireland in June before they left for America on the ship ‘Thomas’, but she died at the end of August while they were still at sea. Hibernia was the couple’s eighth child and the sixth to die. Three of their children, Elizabeth, John and William, Jr. died in Tangier. Two of their children died in London in 1684.
During their time in New York, Martha gave birth to a daughter Jeane on Dec. 8, 1687. William very quickly purchased land in Setauket, ‘Ye Little Neck’ and on the South Shore as well. By 1689, William and Martha had moved permanently to the young settlement of Setauket. In March, Martha gave birth to William Henry. In June 1690, their daughter Gloryana was born. Eighteen months later another daughter, Theodocia, was born on Dec. 14 and died on Dec. 29. Two years later, on Dec. 20, 1693, Martha gave birth to the couple’s last child Charles Jeffery.
During these early years in Setauket, William and Martha moved from their first house near the Woodhull homestead to the Neck where they built a larger house that became known as St. George’s Manor. While Martha kept busy at home, William worked to increase his land holdings as well as his family. On Oct. 9, 1693, he received a patent from Governor Fletcher that included all the land “bounded roughly By Carmen’s River and Forge River [then called Connecticut River and Mastic River respectively] between Middle Country Road and the Atlantic Ocean.” This, combined with his previous purchase, created the Manor of St. George. In 1697, William added another portion of land, running to the western boundaries of the Towns of Southampton and Southold. He then built a second Manor House on Smith’s Point in Mastic. Here the family spent summers, returning to the Manor house in Setauket for the rest of the year.
With the acquisition of the patent land in 1693, William and Martha became the Lord and Lady of the Manor, Lady Martha and Lord William “Tangier” Smith.
Stay tuned for part two of Beverly C. Tyler’s History Close at Hand column in the coming weeks.
