“Re: Bear in mind that the daughter married the son of a deceased immigrant, so there wasn't that much social climbing required ...”
Manlee Smallwood was a church member and carried a Colonel title; I could do with more bio details, but just based on those two facts, I am raising my eyebrows at his wife (2nd?) being a “criminal’s” daughter.
If you read a little bit in Coldham’s introduction, you will see that England was dumping its “undesirables” into the Colony, at a profit (including political agitators). From what I know of the history of the Jersey provinces, they were as class stratified as England, and this wasn’t the frontier. There wasn’t a known shared belief such as Society of Friends to act as an equalizing force. There’s no remarkable “rags to riches” story. So the place to begin is within Manlee’s community and then expand. I’d want to know, if possible, about her first marriage. ... where did she go?