Background on Daniel Smith
A chair-maker from Ipswich, Mass., Daniel Smith was born on June 30, 1755, and served the Revolutionary cause with just over six-month's total duty, spent mostly in Robert Dodge's Company in 1777. According to Thomas Franklin Waters's Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Smith came from a family that included a great uncle, John Brown, who worked as a turner until his death in 1758. Brown left much of his estate to his son Daniel, who in turn left his estate to his nephew Daniel Smith in 1796.
Even prior to the Revolution, Smith worked as a skilled craftsman, bottoming, collaring, and repairing chairs. Over the next decades, his work grew to include turning legs and handles and making a wide variety of chairs, including waist chairs, four-back chairs, "green chairs," great chairs, round chairs, and low chairs.
Smith married Hannah Lord on March 7, 1782. When he died on Jan. 28, 1844, he divided his estate between four of his seven children, Elizabeth Treadwell, Daniel Brown Smith, Thomas Smith, and Benjamin Smith. The 1832 "Philander" map of Ipswich recorded Daniel Brown Smith, a cabinet marker, living next door to his father at 29 High Street.
