Author: Smith, Joshua
Biography:
SMITH, Joshua (1758-1828: ancestry.co.uk)
The attribution of Scandal, A Poem. By the Biographer of Anacreon (1827) to Joshua Smith is logical but by no means certain. It was first made in the British Museum catalogue of 1881, albeit with a question mark. Scandal was certainly written by a parish priest but the biography of Anacreon had not in fact appeared. Proposals for its publication by subscription were advertised at the end of Scandal but it does not seem ever to have appeared and Smith’s death in 1828 could have been the reason. Smith was learned clergy with leisure enough to produce a scholarly work on Anacreon so the attribution of Scandal to him has some merit. However, a further advertisement following the proposals states that Horae Academicae (1823) is “by the same author.” No copy has been located and the advertisement may have been an insert. The review of Horae Academicae in the Imperial Magazine (Sept. 1823, 860-1) identifies the author as Rev. S. Jones. Joshua Smith was born at Holt, Norfolk, on 19 Jan. 1758 and baptised on 12 Feb., the son of Rev. Joshua Smith (1726-1804), rector, and his wife Elizabeth Briggs (1731-1810), daughter of Rev. Dr. Henry Briggs, a former rector of Holt (1722-44). He was educated at Eton and St. John’s College Cambridge (matric. 1776, BA 1780, MA 1784, BD 1791, Fellow 1783-1804, Tutor 1789-1804) and ordained deacon (1780) and priest (1787) in the Church of England. He was curate of Holt (1780-1), rector of St. Florence, Pembrokeshire (1804-28), vicar of Packington, Leicestershire (1804-23), and succeeded his father as rector of Holt (1804-1828) on the presentation of his mother. He married Catharine Tillard (1763-1843), only daughter of Rev. Richard Tillard, vicar of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, on 20 Sept. 1804 at Bluntisham cum Earwith, Huntingdonshire, and gave up his Fellowship at St. John’s. There does not appear to have been any issue. He died 21 April 1828 and was buried at Holt. His wife, Catharine survived him and died at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire in 1843. (ancestry.co.uk 13 Oct. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 13 Oct. 2024; CCEd 13 Oct. 2024; LES 29 Apr. 1828; GM Mar. 1804, 279, June Supp. 1828, 646; OUCH 22 Dec. 1843) AA