APPENDIX, 55 



III. Account of the Life and Writings o/Ad^mSmitHjLL.D. 

 [Read by Mr Stewart, Jan. 21. and March 18. 1793.] 



SECTION I. 



From Mr Smith's Birth till the Publication of the Theory of Moral 

 Sentiments. 



ADAM SMITH, Author of the Inquiry into the Nature 

 and Caufes of the Wealth of Nations, was the fon of 

 Adam Smith, Comptroller of the Cuftoms at Kirkaldy*, and 

 of Margaret Douglas, daughter of Mr Douglas of Stra- 

 thenry. He was the only child of the marriage, and was born 

 at Kirkaldy on the 5th of June 1723, a few months after the 

 death of his father. 



His 



* Mr Smith, the father, was a native of Aberdeenfhire, and in the earlier part 

 of his life praclifed at Edinburgh as a writer to the Signet. He was afterwards pri. 

 vate fecretary to the Earl of Loudoun, (during the time that he held the offices of 

 principal Secretary of State for Scotland, and of Keeper of the Great Seal), and 

 continued in his employment till 1713 or 1714, when he was appointed comptroller 

 of the cuftoms at Kirkaldy. He was alfo clerk, to the courts martial and councils 

 of war for Scotland; an office which he held from 1707 till his death. As it is 

 now feventy years iince he died, the accounts I have received of him are very im- 

 perfect ; but from the particulars already mentioned, it may be prefumed, that he 

 was a man of more than common abilities. 



