Читать книгу Essentials in Church History - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 65

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Joseph Smith was born in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, December 23, 1805. He was the third son and fourth child of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith, who had a family of ten children. His parents were of sturdy New England stock, honest, godfearing, industrious, but poor in worldly substance. Joseph Smith had descended on his paternal side from Robert Smith, who emigrated from England in the year 1638. There is no record to be found of the ancestry of Robert Smith, nor do we know at this time from what part of England he came, further than that he went in his early youth to Boston, Lincolnshire, and then to London, where he took ship for America. He landed in Boston, Massachusetts, and moved to that part of Rowley, in Essex County, which afterwards became the township of Boxford. Here, later, he purchased two hundred eight acres of land, a portion of which was in Topsfield township. He married Miss Mary French. They were the parents of ten children. Robert was known among his neighbors as a quiet, unassuming man, devoted to the welfare of the settlement. Through his industry he was able to provide some comforts for his family, who were reared in the prevailing religious teachings of that day, but strictly in the knowledge of the scriptures.