Abigail Smith

Abigail Day, dau. of Sgt. Ralph Day and his 2nd wife the former widow Abigail (Crafts) Ruggles, b. of record Apr. 22, 1661 at Dedham, Mass. She d. at Needham, Mass. June 15, 1725.

On Dec. 21, 1677 of record at Dedham, Abigail m. John Smith, the only child of Christopher Smith by his 2nd wife, the former widow Mary (Fairbanks) Metcalf, b. Nov. 19, 1655 at Dedham. He d. at Needham, MA Oct. 7, 1722. They had ten children who are summarized in their father's memorial.

In George K. Clarke's 1912 published History of Needham, Massachusetts (p. 315-6):

• The Needham Cemetery Includes a portion of the land granted by the inhabitants of Dedham in 1710/11 for the support of the ministry on the north side of the Charles River. On December 4, 1711, the Town of Needham chose a committee consisting of the five selectmen and Jonathan Gay, Jeremiah Woodcock, Thomas Metcalf and Eleazer Kingsbery to "Stake and Bound outt a pleace for the Buerring of the dead of this town in." They selected the wellknown place (Needham Cemetery), where interments are said to have been made prior to 1711, the first that of a child in the winter season. The earliest date of a death, recorded on a stone, is December 4, 1711, which is scratched on a rough field stone in memory of Edward Cook. Barely an acre of ground received nearly all of the dead of the town, until the space was exhausted, although only a fraction of the graves are marked by stones.

The memorialist has assumed John Smith and wife Abigail Day are interred at Needham Cemetery, but now without extant gravestones, if they had one to begin with.