516 



SMIKKK 



SMITH 



a bit;' though really written before, it was only 

 after the success of Stephenson's life that .SV/- ////> 

 appeared. Henceforward his career was that of a 

 popular author ami compiler, varied by travel to 

 the scenes of the labours of the characters he de- 

 scribed. An attack of uaml vsis while hi- wa- KtgBMtl 

 upon Thrift in IS71 yielded to complete rest and a 

 change of employment. He received the degree of 

 LL.D. from Edinburgh I'niversity in 1878. 



To the Self-Help series of books ho added Character 

 < 1*71 ), Thrift ( 1875), Duly ( 1880), and Li}-- and Labour 

 ( 1887 ). Works which teach the same truths by example 

 are Lire* of the Enyineen (1881 ) ; Industrial Bioiiraphv 

 (1863); Lires of Boullon and Watt (1865); Thomas 

 Edward (1876): George Moore (1878); Robert Dick 

 (1878); Jamet Nasmyth (1883): Men of Invention and 

 Industry ( 1884 ). Besides contributions to the Quarterly 

 Jteview, he also published The Huguenots in England 

 (1867), and The Huguenoti in France (1873); A Pub- 

 lisher and Hit Friend* : John Murray (1891); and 

 Jasmin, the Barber-poet ( 1891 ). The wain value of these 

 books is their homely practical nature, and the enforce- 

 ment of everyday precepts by example. 



Sinirke, SIR ROBERT, architect, was the son of 

 Robert Sinirke (1752-1845), a well-known painter 

 and book-illustrator, and was born in London in 

 1780. He became R. A. in 181 1, was architect to the 

 Board of \Vorks, and was knighted in 1831. He died 

 at Cheltenham, 18th April 1867. Smirke's public 

 buildings are usually classical, his domestic dwell- 

 ings Gothic. London is full of his work. Covent 

 Garden Theatre (1809) was his first great under- 

 taking ; tin- British Museum ( 1823-47 ) the greatest. 

 Others of his buildings are the Mint, the Post- 

 office, several of the cluto ( including the Carlton ), 

 the College of Physicians, King's College, and 

 courts of justice in various parts of the country. 

 Hf was entrusted with the restoration of York 

 Minster after the fire ( 1829). Lowther Castle is a 

 specimen of his domestic architecture. His brother 

 Sydney Smirke, R.A. ( 1799-1877), was associated 

 with him in some of his labours. 



Smith, one of the oldest and most wide-spread 

 of English family names, not to be regarded as 

 belonging to one but to very many distinct families. 

 It is, of course, derived from the honourable trade 

 of the smith ; the smith being originally a worker 

 in metal or wood, and HO nearly equivalent (when 

 not compounded as in goldsmith, locksmith, arrow- 

 smith) to 'craftsman' or 'artificer.' At first the 

 name was not hereditary, but was used as a 

 description of the individual : in the 14th century 

 we have John Smyth, son of Thomas Wright 

 (John being a smith and Thomas a carpenter); 

 John's son might be called William Smythson, 

 and his daughter Mary Smythdogliter. But soon 

 the name l>ecame purely hereditary ; and it is 

 obvious that there would be many founders of 

 Smith families. Philip le Smetlie, William le 

 Smyt, Henry le Smevt show ancient forms of the 

 name; Smyth, Sinythe, and Sinijth (derived from 

 n form with a dotted y, Smyth) are also old 

 variants which still survive. Smithson, Smith- 

 man, Brownsmith, Redesmith, Nosmyth (-Nail 

 Miiitli), \c. are derivative forms. Corresponding 

 in meaning is the Latin Faber ; French, Le Fevre, 

 Lefeere, or Lefebvre ; Italian, Fabroni ; German, 

 SAmidti Dutch, XmiV/ and Smitt. The Celtic 

 CVii'rrfand COIF are nearly equivalent. The English 

 names Kerrier, Ferrers, Ferrars are from the Lniin 

 Ferrtiriiis, ' farrier ' or ' shoesmith. ' See NA.M I .-. 



In the London directory the Smith- fill eight 

 pages (averaging 200 entries) of the commercial 

 section (as against four pages of Joneses, and four 

 of Browns), and three in the Court directory' not 

 all undistinguished. Sir Hugh Smithson, who 

 married the heiress of the Percies (q.v. ), was 

 created Duke of Northumberland in 1776 ; the 



Viscounts Strangford were Smythe*; and the 

 willow of the Right Hon. William Henry Smiili 

 (q.v.) was in 1891 made Viscountess Hamble.h-n. 

 And there were in 1892 six baronet* and twenty- 

 four knights bearing the name of Smith (in ita 

 several spellings); and sixty entries in the index 

 of Imrke's J'uriiiii testify to the aristocratic con- 



nections of the Smiths. There is a work by H. S. 

 Grazebrook on The Heraldry of Smith ( 1870') ; and 

 by F. M. Smith on Thr Heraldry of Smith in timt- 

 land (\S~S). In English literature they constitute 

 a mighty army : Aflibone's Dictionary of British 

 and American Authors, with its supplement (1891 ), 

 enumerates no less than 1069 several and distinct 

 authors of the name of Smith (seventy-live of 

 them William Smith), without counting Smyths, 

 &c. The editor of the Dictionary of Amti, 

 Biography has thought no less than 199 persons of 

 the name worthy of notice in that work. To such 

 exhanstivenesH the present work cannot pretend ; 

 but besides the subjects of the 18 articles below, 

 we add a list of 22 Smiths whose names are more 

 or less familiar in philanthropy, literature, science, 

 or art. 



Anker Smith, engraver (1759-1819); Charles Koach 

 Smith, antiquary (1805-110); Charlotte Smith, poet and 

 novelist (1749-1806); Kli Smith, American missionary 

 to Syria (1801-57); Sir Francis Pettit Smith, mechani- 

 cal inventor (1808-74; see p. 404); George Smith, of 

 Chichcster, landscape-painter (1714-4)6); Gerrit Smith, 

 American philanthropist (1797-1874); Henry Boynton 

 Smith, D.D., American Presbyterian divine (1815-77); 

 James Smith of Deanston, Scottish agriculturist ( 1789- 

 1850); James Edward Smith, botanist (1759-1828); 

 John Smith, mezzotint engraver (1GT>L' 1742); John 

 Raphael Smith, painter and inezzotinter (1750-1812); 

 John Pye Smith, D.D., LL.D., divine and geologist 

 (1774-1851); John .Stafford Smith, composer (1760- 

 1836 ) ; Robert Angus Smith, Scottish chemist and 

 hygienist, author of Air and Sain, lie. (1817-84); 

 Robert Archibald Smith, composer of Scotch songs and 

 psalm-tunes (1780-18211); Very Rev. Robert Payne 

 .Smith, Bean of Canterbury, orientalist and divine, 

 Hampton Lecturer on Prophecy (bom 1818) ; Sir Thomas 

 Smith, Elizabethan statesman and scholar, author of De 

 Republic* Anglorum (1512-77); Thomas Smith, of 

 Derby, painter (c, 1709-6'J) ; Thomas Suuthwood Smith, 

 M.I)., hygienist, author of Philosophy of Health and 

 K,,i:lemici (1790-1801); William Henry Smith, author 

 of the philosophical novels Tliorndale and Grarenhurst 

 (1808-72); also Charles Piazzi Smyth, ex-astronomer- 

 royal for Scotland (born 1819). 



Smith, AUAM, the founder of political econ- 

 omy as a separate branch of human knowledge, 

 was born in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife, on Tilli 

 June 1723. His family belonged to the respect- 

 able middle class ; his father was comptroller of 

 the customs at the port of Kirkcaldy, and his 

 mother, Margaret Douglas, was the daughter of 

 a small Fifeshire laird. His father died a short 

 time before his birth, and the boy was the 

 object of the care and solicitude of a widowed 

 mother, to whom he was closely attached, and 

 who lived to be proud of his attainments. When 

 he was no more than three years old the poor 

 woman got a sad fright, from a calamity hardly 

 known at the present day the child was stolen by 

 tinker-; but he was tracked and recovered by his 

 uncle as they were seeking a hiding-place in the 

 neighbouring wood of Leslie. This was the only 

 adventure in his quiet life. After getting the usual 

 burgh-school education in Kirkcaldy, he was Kent, 

 in 1737, to the university of Glasgow, where he 

 seems to have devoted himself mainly to mathe- 

 matics and natural philosophy, though Hutcheson 

 was the professor of moral philosophy. He secured 

 an exhibition on the Snell foundation, which took 

 him to Italliol College, Oxford, where he studied 

 for seven years, and left traditions its of a man of 

 large acquirements and peculiar independence of 



