"Ancient friend of Providence"
His origins have recently been pinpointed to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. He was of Providence,RI in 1649 when he was first granted land there, then Newport,RI. He was a Quaker, and is said to be buried in Newport according to Friends' records, but the site is lost.
His death year is variously found as 1676 and 1677.
The SmithConnections Northeastern DNA Project, spearheaded by Kitty Cooper Smith, is currently studying his descendancy through DNA. An article in the Winter 2016 edition of NEHGS' American Ancestors magazine describes the Christopher Smith family and new connections uncovered through DNA analysis and parish registers in Stratford-upon-Avon.
He married Alice Gibbes on May 1,1616 at Stratford-upon-Avon, England. They were married in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, just one week after William Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the same church.
Children: William Smith, Christopher Smith Jr, possibly Susanna Smith Wilkinson, Mary Smith Partridge(mother of Mary (Partridge) Smith Montague), Samuel Smith, Simon Smith, Joseph Smith, Benjamin Smith, and Edward Smith. ****NOTE: A son Thomas Smith is included in most literature up to The Ancestry of Emily Jane Angell (1992). This connection has been essentially disproven via DNA studies, and no baptism for him has been found.