Author: SMITH, Thomas
Biography:
SMITH, Thomas (1736-1813: Ward “Preface”)
He was born on 27 Jan. 1736 and baptised on 7 May 1737 at Fressingfield, Suffolk, the son of Robert Smith and his wife Jemima (maiden name unknown). He “heard the gospel” under Rev. Thomas Purdy, later Particular Baptist minister at Rye, Sussex, and was baptised in the river Waveney, near Harleston, Norfolk, on 30 Sept. 1765. He was ordained minister of a new church at Shelfanger by Rev. Edward Trivett of Worstead, also Particular Baptist, in 1769, and served as its minister for nearly fifty years. He married Kezia Gooch (1738-1822) on 18 Nov. 1768 at her parish of Denton, Norfolk. They had nine children. They moved to Fersfield, Norfolk, on 30 Oct. 1772 and stayed until his death, aged 77, on 13 Dec. 1813. After his death, Rev. Edward Manser of Horsham, near Diss, Norfolk, transcribed five hundred of his hymns (of a reported eleven hundred) for publication but his death and the financial situation of both families prevented it. With a view to assisting Kezia Smith and her children, William Ward selected one hundred of them for the work listed here. They were “a complete system, of doctrine, experience, and practice” and were arranged “on the plan of the book of Psalms” (“Preface” iv). Smith was considered an “eminent minister of the Supralapsarian doctrine” (Particular Baptist-Calvinist) which asserted that the elect had fallen into sin but could not lose their heavenly inheritance. Christ redeemed them from the captivity of sin, but did not purchase heaven for them. As arcane theological doctrine it holds very little interest for modern readers but was a matter of life and death (for some people) in its day. (William Ward,”Preface,” Original Hymns [1822], [iii]-vi; ancestry.co.uk 24 Dec. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 24 Dec. 2022; Bury and Norwich Post 22 Dec. 1813; Maurice F. Hewett, “The Church at Shelfanger,” Baptist Quarterly 12.9 [Jan. 1948], 331-40) AA