Author: Smith, Thomas
Biography:
SMITH, Thomas (1775-1830: ancestry.co.uk)
Without an account of his life, it is almost impossible to identify him because of the name. Library catalogues list him as Thomas Smith, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, but that is clearly wrong as that Thomas Smith, of the Established Church, died of cholera in 1834. What follows has been gathered from title pages of his works and his incumbency as Minister at Trinity Chapel, Leather Lane, Holborn, London (Independent). He signed the preface to A New and Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures (1820) from Exmouth-street, Spa Fields, London. The History and Origin of the Missionary Societies (1824-5) further identified him as a minister. Original Hymns (1831) was a posthumous collection published by his wife. With an address, a profession, and an approximate date of death, it is certain he was the Rev. Thomas Smith who died on 21 Dec. 1830 and was buried at St. Bride’s Fleet Street on 3 Jan. 1831, aged 55. Further, a notice of his wife’s death in 1832, leaving four orphan children and an adult son in trade in Hastings, confirms her name as Sarah. Her maiden name is not known and there are several candidates for the marriage but nothing to corroborate them or to indicate whether it was non-conformist or in the established church or what the bride’s parish was. However, six children were recorded in the baptism register of Trinity Chapel with Smith’s profession and address given: Augustus (1809), Frederick (1811), Selina (1814), Edwin (1816), Eliza (1819), Rowland (1824). He served for twenty-two years at Trinity Chapel but his earlier career is not known. After his death the Evangelical Magazine solicited subscriptions for his widow and children and, on her death, for contributions to assist her eldest son in his small shop in Hastings. He was Augustus Smith (mentioned in Thomas Smith’s will) and she died at his residence in Hastings on 4 Oct. 1832. (ancestry.co.uk 21 Sept. 2022; Evangelical Magazine Mar. 1831, 116, Supplement 1832, 584-5; OJ 1 Jan. 1831; Pigot’s Directory [1824], 148) AA