572 APPENDIX. 



No. XV.— Page 542. 



Richard Smith. 



Richard Smith, the Jiffh son of Rev. William Smith, D. D., and 

 Rebecca Smith, was born at Philadelphia, on the 25th of January, 

 1769, and was baptized in Christ Church, on the 19th of March follow- 

 ing, by the Rev. Dr. Peters, his sponsors being Dr. Smith and Richard 

 Hockley, Esq., Receiver-General of the Province of Pennsylvania. 



His youth passed during the troublesome times of the Revolution, 

 and the early impressions then made upon his mind appear never to 

 have been forgotten. Carefully educated by his father, he soon became 

 a good classical scholar, and imbibed a love for literature which he re- 

 tained and enjoyed until the day of his death. 



Soon after leaving college he commenced the study of law, and was 

 admitted to the bar in Philadelphia on the 27th day of February, 1792. 

 He subsequently located himself at Huntingdon, the seat of justice for 

 Huntingdon county, which had been erected in 1787; but the precise 

 time of his going there is not known. In the act erecting the county 

 and fixing the seat of justice, it recited "that the proprietor of said 

 town had agreed to lay off and set apart a proper and sufficient quantity 

 of grounds, for the site of a court house, county gaol and prison, and 

 hath engaged to give, assure and convey the same to the Common- 

 wealth, in trust and for the use and benefit of the said county;" there- 

 fore certain trustees were named and appointed to carry the same into 

 effect. On the 25th of August, 1791, in pursuance of the agreement 

 under which Huntingdon had been made the county seat. Dr. Smith 

 conveyed lot No. 41, on the east side of St. Clair (now Second) street, 

 to Benjamin Elliott, Eudwig Sell, George Ashman, William McAlevy, 

 Richard Smith and Andrew Henderson, Trustees, as a site for a county 

 prison. 



The first appearance of Mr. Smith in the courts of the county seems 

 to have been in 1795, as he was there admitted as a member of the bar 

 in that year. He was regarded as a ripe scholar, an ornament to the 

 bar, and soon occupied a prominent position at it. Pie was personally 

 popular, and spoken of as being "the pride of the village." From 1797 

 to 1 801 he represented the district composed of the counties of Hunt- 



