524 APPENDIX. 



reserved in general intercourse, and having, moreover, been a frequent traveller and 

 resident abroad, was not much known to the present generation of Philadelphians. 

 But he was well deserving of the honor and respect of them all. His father was the 

 Hon. Thomas Smith, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a 

 native of Scotland (born near Aberdeen), and half-brother of the able and accom- 

 plished Dr. William Smith, Provost, and in fact the founder, of the old College of 

 Philadelpliia, now the University of Pennsylvania, both being sons of Thomas Smith, 

 a man of property in Scotland. 



Thomas Smith, coming to this country, went to Carlisle, Pa., where he practised law 

 successfully, and built the large house there afterwards occupied by Mr. Hamilton. 

 In 1790 he came to this city, and resided on the south side of Market street, between 

 Tenth and Elevtnh. He was apponited in 1794 a Judge of our Supreme Court, and 

 died in 1809, leaving the reputation of an able and most upright judge. He was de- 

 votedly attached to the Federal party — the party of Washington and Hamilton, of Jay 

 and Marshall; and he named his son after Washington, with whom he was on terms 

 of personal friendship. His wife, who, if a picture of her by the elder Peale, still 

 preserved, does not exaggerate her personal attractions, must have been distinguished 

 by beauty, was of the family name of Van Dearen. 



Mr. George Washington Smith was born, as appears by a record in his own hand- 

 M'riting in our Historical Society, on the 4th of August, 1800. His motlier died while 

 he was a mere infant, and his father in 1809, before he had completed his ninth year. 

 He was then committed to the care of the late Chief Justice Tilghman and Edward 

 Shippen Burd, as his guardians, the actual guardianship being discharged by the 

 former, for whom Mr. Smith, in common with all who knew him intimately, ever 

 entertained the warmest affection and respect. He received his primary instructions 

 in classical literature from the well-known James Ross, the author of the Grammar, 

 and in 1818 graduated at Princeton, where the late gifted Joseph Mcllvaine, Esq., 

 afterwards Recorder of this city and a Representative in the Legislature, was his 

 classmate. He studied law in the office of the late Hon. Horace Binney, and was in 

 due time admitted to the bar. But his circumstances were such as raised him above 

 the necessity of practising his profession, and he never did so. He, however, engaged 

 actively in matters of public interest, especially those relating to railroads, which then 

 occupied the attention both of practical and scientific men, Mr. Moncure Robinson, 

 yet surviving in honor among us, being in those days at the head of them. He was 

 also greatly interested in the subject of prison discipline. 



Two papers signed with his initials, " G. W. S.," in the Vierus of Philadelphia, 

 published by the late Mr. Cephas Childs, give evidence of his ability in the discussion 

 of what is now known as Penology. He had already been abroad, and paid much 

 attention to the subject of railways in England and on the continent, and was often 

 before committees at Harrisburg, where it was remarked by the late John B. Wallace — 

 a leading member of the House of Representatives, and much interested in the subject 

 of mternal imjirovements, then representing, for about three years (from 1S30 to 1833), 

 one of our western counties in the Legislature—" that his information could always be 

 depended upon for its accuracy." During some years Mr. Smith afterwards resided 

 in Edinburgh and London, where he was engaged in vindicating before the Superior 

 Courts of England, and finally before the House of Lords, the rights of a sister, who 

 had married a Scotch gentleman of rank and fortune, to a large amount of pioperty 

 which, in his idea, sire had, in disregard of her rights, surrendered to her husband's 

 family, in the settlement of a family difficulty. The case came finally before the 



