Author: Stuart, John Ferdinand Smyth
Biography:
STUART, John Ferdinand Smyth, formerly SMYTH (1745?-1814: Wikipedia)
The author of Destiny and Fortitude (1808) published that poem as part of a longstanding campaign to be recognised as a great-grandson of Charles II; at about the same time, he was petitioning the King and the British government for redress to the amount of £244,546 (with the understanding that he would settle for a “moderate” pension to support himself and his family). There is room here only for bare facts. He grew up in Scotland as John Ferdinand Smyth. His alleged MD from the University of Edinburgh is not confirmed by the List of Graduates, but he emigrated to America in 1763 and established a medical practice in Virginia. (In 1807 he would publish a vehement pamphlet against vaccination.) By 1770 he was a planter, renting rather than owning the land. He fought as a Captain in the Queen’s Rangers, a loyalist regiment, during the Revolution, and published an account of his adventures as “Capt. John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth” in 1778. On 23 Oct. 1778 he married Abigail Haugewout of Hempstead NY against her father’s wishes. They had one daughter, born in 1780, but before her birth Smyth returned alone to England, pleading ill health. He was granted a pension which was however withdrawn in 1784—upon which he published his version of events in A Tour in the United States of America(1784). For about ten years from 1785 he divided his time between England and the West Indies. In England he started a second family with Eunice Gray (d 1818), whom he married bigamously in 1803. The first of their seven children, four of whom died young, was born in 1793. It was in 1793 also that he adopted the name Stuart and began to promote his claims to royal status. He was employed as a barrack-master in San Domingo and in England. When he retired from that work, he settled in Bloomsbury, London. He was run over by a carriage on Southampton St. on 20 Dec. 1814 and buried at Marylebone on 1 Jan. 1815. Obituaries took his published claims at face value and his widow and children were granted substantial annual funding. (“John Ferdinand Smyth Stuart,” Wikipedia 11 Nov. 2024; ODNB 11 Nov. 2024; ancestry.com 11 Nov. 2024; findmypast.com 11 Nov. 2024; Monthly Magazine 1 Feb. 1815, 36-44)
Other Names:
- Ferdinand Smyth Stuart
- John Ferdinand Smyth