Smith's exact birth date is unclear. He was baptized on 6 January 1580 at Willoughby, near Alford, Lincolnshire, where his parents rented a farm from Lord Willoughby. He claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of Cuerdley, Lancashire,Churton, Ralph, The lives of William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton (1800), p. 5 and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, from 1592 to 1595. Smith was initially set on a path to apprentice with a merchant in the Hanseatic League merchant seaport of King's Lynn in Norfolk. However, he found himself ill-suited for the monotonous life of a tradesman and the confines of a counting house. Peter Firstbrook, the biographer of John Smith, posits that Smith's brief stint as an apprentice to a merchant in the seaport of King's Lynn sparked his adventurous spirit.
Smith's exact birth date is unclear. He was baptized on 6 January 1580 at Willoughby near Alford, Lincolnshire, where his parents rented a farm from Lor,d Willoughby. He claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of Cuerdley, Lancashire,Churton, Ralph, The lives of William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton (1800), p. 5 and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth, from 1592 to 1595. Smith was initially set on a path to apprentice with a merchant in the Hanseatic League merchant seaport of King's Lynn in Norfolk. However, he found himself ill-suited for the monotonous life of a tradesman and the confines of a counting house. Peter Firstbrook, the biographer of John Smith, posits that Smith's brief stint as an apprentice to a merchant in the seaport of King's Lynn sparked his adventurous spirit.