Author: Smirke, Edward
Biography:
SMIRKE, Edward (1795-1875: ODNB)
Edward Smirke, third son of the painter Robert Smirke (1753-1845) and his wife Elizabeth Russell (1756-1838), was born on 28 Mar. 1795 and baptised at St. Pancras, London, on 1 May. (His two brothers became architects and he published a memoir of one of them, Robert, in 1867.) He was admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1812 (BA 1816, MA 1820); there he won the Chancellor’s gold medal for a poem in English with Wallace: a Poem (1815), which was reprinted in later collections but at eight pages is too short to be included as a separate publication in this bibliography. It is his only known verse publication. He went on from Cambridge to the Inns of Court and was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1824. On 11 Sept. 1838 he married Harriet Amelia Neill at St. Mary Abbot’s, Kensington; the marriage was childless. He had a busy career as a barrister on the Western circuit and then was appointed solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales (1844), rising to attorney-general to the Prince in 1852. From 1846 to 1855 he served as Recorder of Southampton, Hampshire. In 1853 he was made vice-warden of the stannaries—tin-mining districts--of Cornwall and Devon, a position he held until his retirement in 1870, at which point he was knighted. He was also a keen antiquarian, a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute and the Society of Antiquaries and president of the Royal Institution of Cornwall in 1861-3 and 1865-7. Besides the afore-mentioned memoir of his brother and occasional legal opinions, his primary writings were contributions to those organisations. He died at his London home, 18 Thurloe Square, on 4 Mar. 1875, and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. His wife predeceased him and he left effects of under £25,000 to two nieces and other beneficiaries. (ODNB 30 Oct. 2024; ancestry.com 30 Oct. 2024; findmypast.com 30 Oct. 2024; The News [London] 16 Sept. 1838) HJ