Author: Smith, Luke
Biography:
SMITH, Luke (1792-1843: ancestry.co.uk)
He was probably the Luke Smith baptised at St. Michael’s, Coventry, on 3 May 1792, the only son of three children of Mark Smith and his wife Lucy (maiden name unknown). He probably had little education. He married Sarah Brown on 2 Dec. 1810 at St. John the Baptist, Coventry. They went on to have at least seven children, not all of whom survived infancy. Baptism registers give his occupation as weaver. He had his right arm amputated in Nov. 1831, probably as a result of an injury at work, and recounted his operative and post-operative experiences in the work listed here. The work also contained a poem to his son Jacob, who had been born in 1821. There were over a hundred subscribers and the work appeared in Dec. 1832. His wife had died in 1827. He was probably the Luke Smith who died aged 42 and was buried at St. Michael’s, Coventry, on 7 Feb. 1834. As an invalided labouring-class man, his death went unnoticed but the British Museum and Bodley acquired early copies of his book. (ancestry.co.uk 13 Apr. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 13 Apr. 2022; Catalogus… Bodleianae [1843]; List of Additions…in the British Museum for 1832 [1834], 126) AA