Author: Smith, W. C.
Biography:
SMITH, W. C. (1800-31: findmypast.com)
W. C. Smith, identified on the title-page of the volume of “miscellaneous writings” listed here as the author also of the prose Rambles around Guildford (1828) and The History of Farnham and the Ancient Cistercian Abbey of Waverley (1829), died in 1831 and was buried at St. Nicholas, Guildford, on 3 Aug. His widow Ann brought out the collection of his literary remains in prose and verse by subscription, to support herself financially. The Hampshire Advertiser reviewed the “unpretending volume” enthusiastically as a legacy from the “amiable and respected” author, and commended it especially as a present for young people. He was buried as William Childs Smith but no corresponding birth record has been found. He might be the William C. Smith who married Ann E. Woodman at St. John Horsleydown, Southwark, in 1823. (She was the daughter of Esther and William Woodman, baptised Ann Elizabeth at Rotherhithe on 6 Apr. 1800.) They do not appear to have had children baptised in Surrey though he wrote as an inhabitant of Guildford and dedicated his Rambles (a set of guided walks) to the local MP. (findmypast.com 9 Nov. 2024; ancestry.com 9 Nov. 2024; Hampshire Advertiser 6 Sept. 2024)