John SMALLWOOD, SR.

                   From the Smallwood Family researchers at www.bedfordpark.net/genealogy/smallwood:

As described on the Early Yorkshire Smallwoods  page, the Smallwood family flourished in Egton from at least the 1520's, with Ralph Smallwood (d. 1576) appearing to be the ancestor of all the later local lines. While the more affluent main line running through Ralph's son Alan has been reasonably well documented, a variety of other less affluent descent lines also survived in the parish, in one case continuing beyond the ultimate departure of Alan's family from the area. While the precise connections in this part of the family remain unclear, it would appear that the main line derives from Ralph's son Ralph Smallwood (d. 1592), the father of Francis Smallwood of Mircoside (Murkside, along the Murk Esk, in Egton parish), who himself died in 1616 leaving two sons, Ralph and Francis. The picture of this branch of the Egton Smallwoods over the following century is confused by the absence of surviving parish registers from the Commonwealth period and the significant gaps in the series of bishop's transcripts, but it seems most likely that the younger Francis was father of the Thomas Smallwood taxed in Egton in 1662 and 1673. This Thomas was the father of Mary Smallwood (baptised 1662), who is probably ancestral to the later Underwood family of Egton, and was probably also father of the John Smallwood, glover, of Murkside, who appears in a 1691 Quarter Sessions case and was buried in Egton in 1693. This John was, in turn, probably father to the 'John Smallwood junior' also referenced in late 17th century Quarter Sessions records, and it is this John Smallwood, a householder of Beckhole, who represents the start of this tree. John was described as 'of Goathland' when he married Mary Adamson in Pickering in 1691.
John Smallwood's son James (1712-1756), a mariner of Beckhole, married back into the Underwood family and initiated a substantial descendant line which ultimately spread throughout the area of the North Yorkshire Moors and beyond. A tree of over 2100 of his descendants is now in existence, with representatives spread around the world