Author: Smith, Elizabeth
Biography:
SMITH, Elizabeth (1776-1806: ODNB)
The principal sources for her life are letters written by her mother and published in Fragments (1808) with the memoir by her friend Henrietta Maria Bowdler (q.v.). She was born 27 Dec. 1776 at Burn Hall, near Durham, and baptised the following day at St. Oswald’s, Durham. Her parents were George Smith (1751-1822), banker, and later a lieutenant-colonel in the 4th Dragoon Guards, and his wife, Juliet Mott (1754-1838), daughter and sole heiress of Richard Mott, attorney, of Carlton, Suffolk, who had married in 1774. A precocious child, she occasionally had a governess, but was largely self-taught. She was the eldest daughter of seven children and, from the age of thirteen, she taught her siblings. Her early life was unsettled: they lived in Suffolk for two years from 1782 and, in 1785, moved to Piercefield Park, near Chepstow in Monmouth, where John Soane was to build them a new house. However, George Smith’s business collapsed in 1793 and they lost the house. The contents of the library—principal sources for Elizabeth’s learning—were dispersed. In 1794, George Smith was commissioned in the army and served several years in Ireland. She studied languages and by 1795-96 had learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, and Spanish, with a little Syriac and Irish. She was also an accomplished musician and mathematician. In 1799, the family moved to Ballitore, County Kildare, before leaving Ireland in Oct. 1800 and finally settling at Coniston in May 1801. Thomas De Quincy wrote an account of her and her family. Her Translation of the Book of Job was completed in 1803 and she began translating Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock (published 1812). She first showed signs of tuberculosis in 1805 and died from the disease on 7 August 1806 at Coniston. She was buried at Hawkshead. The Rev. J. F. Usko edited and published her A Vocabulary, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian in 1814. (ODNB 18 Jan. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 18 Jan. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 18 Jan. 2024; Fragments [1808]; Durham Records Online; EM, November 1809, 323-6; The New Female Instructor [1824], 316-25; Lucia McMahon, The Celebrated Miss Smith [2022]; Leeds Intelligencer, 21 October 1822; Cumberland Pacquet, 18 December 1838; Thomas De Quincey, [Elizabeth Smith and Family], Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, June 1840, 346-52; contributions from AA)
Other Names:
- Miss Elizabeth Smith