xliii 



honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Dublin at 

 the time of the Meeting of the British Association in that city in 1857; 

 he was an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and he 

 belonged to many foreign Societies, European and American. 



He was three times married, first, as already related, to the daughter of 

 Wm. Stiven, Esq., who died in 1831 ; secondly, to the only daughter of 

 John Booth, Esq,, the niece of Sir John Franklin; she died in 1845, 

 leaving him five children, of whom three are surviving, a daughter, married 

 since his decease to Charles Reynolds, Esq., and two sons, one, the eldest, 

 a Captain in the Royal Artillery, the other a Lieutenant in the Royal En- 

 gineers ; thirdly, to the youngest daughter of Archibald Fletcher, Esq., 

 Advocate, of Edinburgh, in 1847, his surviving widow, to whom the place 

 of his retirement belonged, and where she still resides. 



The life of Admiral William Henry Smyth comprises such a field of 

 arduous labour and successful result, that we must confine ourselves to the 

 merest synopsis. Forty years a member of our Society (from June 15, 

 1826), and all that time engaged in works which brought high reputation, 

 his connexion with the Society was confined for the most part to personal 

 exertion on the Council. The benefits which he conferred on the naval 

 service, on astronomy, on geography, and on archaeology, must be recorded 

 in detail in more appropriate places than this record. 



He was born January 21, 1788. His father was an American loyahst, 

 and a descendant of Captain John Smith, the colonizer of Virginia. He 

 entered the Navy in 1805, and was actively engaged until 1815 in the 

 Indian seas, and on the coasts of Spain and Italy. Here he had his full 

 share of adventure and of danger ; and it was during this first period that 

 his love of surveying developed itself, and attracted the notice of the 

 Admiralty. From 1817 to 1824 he was engaged in that great survey of 

 the Mediterranean — the greatest scientific survey ever planned and com- 

 pleted by one individual — which is now recorded in two hundred charts, 

 and. is the adm.iration of the naval world. By this unexampled result of 

 intelligence and industry he won high reputation and the approbation of 

 the Government, shown by grant of permission to accept a foreign order. 

 This was the only public acknowledgement which he ever received, so far 

 as we can learn. 



His naval career ended in 1824 ; but for many years he was employed 

 in the completion of his charts. In 1828 he settled at Bedford, and from 

 thence until 1842, either at Bedford or Cardiff, he varied his pursuits by 

 close attention to the astronomy of double stars and other extra-meridional 

 pursuits. His well-known '"Cycle" has done much to quicken a taste for 

 astronomy among naval men. 



The last years of his life were passed near Aylesbury. His friend the 

 late Dr. Lee had purchased his instruments, and had attached a small ob- 

 servatory to Hartwell House. Admiral Smyth's residence, St. John's 



