JAMES SM1THS0N AND HIS BEQUEST. 



By William J. Rhees. 



James Smithson was born in England about the year 1754, the pre- 

 cise date and place of bis nativity being- unknown.* ile was a natural 

 son of Hugh Smithson, first Dnke of Northumberland, bis mother being 

 a Mrs. Elizabeth Macie, of an old family in Wiltshire of the name of 

 Hungerford. Nothing has been learned of her history. 



Hugh Smithson, his father, was distinguished as a member of one of 

 the most illustrious houses of Great Britain, and also because of his 

 alliance with the renowned family of Percy. 



The Smithson baronetcy arose with an earlier nugh Smithson, the 

 second son of Anthony Smithson, esq., of Newscouie or Newsham, in the 

 parish of Kirby-on-the-Mount, Yorkshire, who was thus rewarded by 

 Charles II in 1060, for his services in the royalist cause during the civil 

 wars. His grandson, Sir Hugh Smithson, married Elizabeth, daughter 

 of the second Lord Langdale, and had two sons. Hugh, the eldest, died 

 unmarried, before his father; Langdale, the second son, married Miss 

 Eevely, by whom he left one son, Hugh. This son succeeded his grand- 

 father as Sir Hugh Smithson, of Stanwick, m 1750, and was the father 

 of the subject of the present sketch. He married Lady Percy on the 16th 

 July, 1710. Her father inherited the Dukedom of Somerset in 1741, 

 and was created Earl of Northumberland in 1749. On his death, in 

 1750, Sir Hugh Smithson succeeded to these honors and on the 22d of 

 October, 1766, was created first Duke of Northumberland t and Earl 

 Percy, with succession to bis heirs male ; and finally in 1784 the barony 

 of Lovaine of Alnwick was added to his accumulated dignities. 



The Duchess died in 1776. The Duke survived till 1786,| and was 

 succeeded by his son Hugh (half brother of James Smithson), as the 

 second Duke of Northumberland^ 



Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland, had (besides James 

 Smithson) another natural son, who was known as Henry Louis Dickin- 

 son. He received a good education, entered the military service, was 

 commissioned lieutenant-colonel on the 1st of January, 1800, and on the 

 4th of August, 1808, took command of the Eighty-fourth Regiment of 

 Foot. He saw active service on the Continent and in Asia and Africa. 

 His estate was left to the care of his half-brother, Mr. James Smithson, 

 in trust for the benefit of his son, and this was probably the source of a 

 large part of the fund which eventually came to the United States. 



*See Appendix. Note 3. 



t There was a previous Duke of Northumberland who died without issue in 171G, 

 and the title became extinct. t See Appendix. Note 2. 



§ See Appendix. Note 3. 



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