Lucy Smith was born in approximately 1801 in either North or South Carolina (reports vary) and was married to John Jack on September 22, 1823 in Bath County Virginia. They had at least four children together before she died sometime between 1850 and 1855. However these bare facts don’t come close to telling the story of Lucy.

As noted on The Missing Generation, Lucy and John had a child named Clementious Swearingen Jack, named after his presumed grandfather, Clementious Swearingen. So exactly how does Clementious Swearingen relate to this family? John’s father was Andrew Jack and there’s never a mention that he at all relates to the Swearingen’s. Additionally, if he were to name a child after Clem Swearingen, he had a lot of time to do so before Clem Jack was born.

Also, after Clem Jack’s death, it appears that the land he inherited from Clementious Swearingen went to him mother Lucy. After her death, many deeds pass among her children referencing the “land of Clem Swearingen.”

In 1831, Clem Swearingen and his wife Polly (who was not the same wife he widowed when he died) sold to Lucy 300 acres of land for the sum of 1.00. This land was sold directly to Lucy with no mention of her husband John at all. This, in concert with the land she took over from Clem Jack leads me to believe that she was related in some way to Clementious Swearingen.

But if he were her father, why is her name Smith and why does she list her birthplace as South Carolina? And how did she get from South Carolina to Bath County and why?

In the research I’ve done on the Swearingen’s I’ve found no children listed for Clementious Swearingen, but I have found at least one girl he took in as a ward. It is possible that Lucy was a relative that he took in. There were Swearingen’s in both North and South Carolina. I believe that the answer probably lies in the court books in Bath county. Hopefully one day it will be uncovered.

Of course it’s possible that the relationship between Clementious Swearingen and Lucy was of an entirely different variety but if so, that information was not likely documented!