The Three Richard Smiths
From the time Burlington was founded until the Revolution, the Smith
family was influential in local commerce and politics. Family patriarch
Dr. Richard Smith, one of the early settlers, lived in a
house on High Street at the turn of the
eighteenth century.
Dr. Smith's son, Richard Jr., was an international trader whose fleet of
ships sailed between Burlington and the West Indies. He also
represented Burlington in the Provincial Assembly. In 1720, he built
the house now known as the Coleman House.
Smith purchased Alcazar in 1739, and built the
Blue Anchor Tavern next to it eleven
years later.
Like his father, Richard Smith, Esq. served in the Assembly. He also
served as State Treasurer, and served one term in the Continental Congress
before resigning based on his opposition, as a
Quaker, to the Revolutionary War.
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