The Smiths of Lochmaben and Dumfries 1700s to 1800s

The earliest details of my research is currently on Samuel Smith (1744-1827), a husbandman of the Lochmaben area, my 4th Great Grandfather and a stern secessionist.     

A husbandman means a farmer that specializes more in animals.

A secessionist is ...sigh... hard explain without a lesson in church history. this excerpt is from
www.buildinghistory.org :

At the Reformation the Catholic Church was replaced by Presbyterianism as the state religion of Scotland. Authority resides in an annual General Assembly, descending through synods, presbyteries and kirk sessions. The clergy are known as ministers or pastors and their residences as manses.

The Church has been prone to schism. The Secession Church broke away in 1733. In 1843 a third of the established Church's ministers broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland, and The United Presbyterian Church was formed in 1847...

However most of the United Presbyterian and Free Churches merged in 1900 to form the United Free Church, which in turn united with the Church of Scotland in 1929.

And so we went from Catholic to Secessionist and back to Presbyterian (Canada) in stages.

The direct line goes : Samuel Smith > John Smith > Helen Smith > Robert Anderson Logan > James Carson Logan > James Logan > me.

Much can be summarized through the obituary published in the Dumfries Weekly Journal:

SAMUEL SMITH (1744 to 1827)
Death Notice from The Dumfries Weekly Journal, 20 March 1827

At Roucan, Torthorwald, on the evening of the 14th curt., Mr Samuel Smith, in his 83d year. He was a sober, honest and industrious husbandman, reared and educated a numerous family, and maintained to the end of his long life, a credible profession of religion. For more than 16 years he was an elder in Mr Dunlop’s congregation here, and was most regular and exemplary in the discharge of the private, domestic and public duties of Christianity. While health and strength continued with him, seldom was his seat empty in his place of worship. By punctuality in the management of his time at business, he never omitted the performance of family worship twice a day, even “in earning time and harvest.” In the service he breathed out his soul into the bosom of his god. Sorely afflicted with asthma, by which he was kept sitting in his chair, and could not recline in bed, he asked his son at 4 o’clock in the morning, if it was time for making worship. His son sung a psalm, and read a chapter. The good old man turned round on his chair, and whilst in the attitude of prayer he was suddenly though calmly ushered into that world where we have every reason to hope supplication will give place eternal praise. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.”

In all honesty, I can't say any of us have lived up to his standards, nor are we likely to want to. But I admire his convictions, and as I will investigate further, a sense of responsibility to all his children.