When John B. Smith was born on 17 September 1788, in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, his father, John Smith, was 22 and his mother, Sarah Purdy, was 26. He married Betsey Bishop about 1808, in New York, United States.
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"Former slave Olaudah Equiano settled in London and published his autobiography titled ""The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano."" Equiano learned to read and write and converted to Christianity. His autobiography is one of the oldest published works by an African-American writer."
The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena.
The original Ouse Bridge collapsed in 1154 under the weight of a crowd that was on it. In 1367, after the bridge had been replaced with stone and became the site of the first public toilets. In 1564-1565 the bridge was finally done being repaired. In 1810 and 1818 the bridge was dismantled to make way for a new Ouse Bridge design and completed in 1821.
English and Scottish: occupational name denoting a worker in metal, especially iron, such as a blacksmith or farrier, from Middle English smith ‘smith’ (Old English smith, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Early examples are also found in the Latin form Faber . Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents in other languages were the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is also the most frequent of all surnames in the US. It is very common among African Americans and Native Americans (see also 5 below). This surname (in any of the two possible English senses; see also below) is also found in Haiti. See also Smither .
English: from Middle English smithe ‘smithy, forge’ (Old English smiththe). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived in or by a blacksmith's shop, occupational, for someone who worked in one, or habitational, from a place so named, such as Smitha in King's Nympton (Devon). Compare Smithey .
Irish and Scottish: sometimes adopted for Gaelic Mac Gobhann, Irish Mac Gabhann ‘son of the smith’. See McGowan .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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