John Smith (6 September 1767 – 20 January 1842) was a British politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1806 to 1835 and a banker.

Biography

Early life

John Smith was born on 6 September 1767. He was the sixth son of Abel Smith II (1717-1788), a

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

banker who was a Member of Parliament for Aldborough, St Ives, and St Germans, and the brother of

Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington (22 January 1752 – 18 September 1838), was a British banker and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1779 to 1797 when he was raised to the peerage. Early life Smith was the third son of Abel Sm ...

. He lived at Blendon Hall in Kent and finally at Dale Park in Sussex. There is a fine memorial to him in Chichester Cathedral, comprising his recumbent effigy atop a

chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

set within a gothic-arched niche.

Career

He served as a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Wendover Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

from 1802 to 1806 and later represented

from 1806 to 1818,

Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...

from 1818 to 1830,

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

from 1830 to 1831, and

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

from 1831 to 1835. (He was also elected for Midhurst in 1806, but preferred to sit for Nottingham on that occasion. Both Wendover and Midhurst were

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

s controlled by his brother Lord Carrington, but the competitive Nottingham constituency was considerably more prestigious.) Between 1800 and 1831 when pocket boroughs were abolished 12 members of the Smith family sat for the Midhurst parliamentary seat alone. In 1806, Smith served as a Manager of the newly formed

London Institution The London Institution was an educational institution founded in London in 1806 (not to be confused with the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom founded the previous year, with which it shared some founders). It ...

Personal life and death

He married three times. By his second wife, Mary Tucker (1773–1809), he had two sons,

John Abel Smith John Abel Smith (2 June 1802 – 7 January 1871) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) for Chichester and Midhurst. He was the son of John Smith who preceded him as one of the members of parliament for Midhurst. Smith married Anne Jervoise, ...

(1802–1871), who succeeded him as MP for Midhurst, and

Martin Tucker Smith Martin Tucker Smith (6 July 1803 – 10 October 1880) was an English banker and Liberal Party politician. Biography Early life Martin Tucker Smith was born on 6 July 1803. He was the second son of John Smith (1767–1842), and his wife Elizab ...

(1803–1890), who became MP for Wycombe; and he had two daughters by his third wife, Emma Leigh, including the writer,

Caroline Leigh Gascoigne Caroline Leigh Gascoigne (''gas-koin′''; , Smith; 2 May 1813 – 11 June 1883) was a 19th-century English poet and novelist. She published ''Temptation'' (1839), ''Evelyn Harcourt'' (1842), ''Dr. Harold's Note-Book'' (1869), and other works in ...

. He died on 20 January 1842 at Dale Park when he was accidentally poisoned by his nearly-blind wife, who gave him an overdose of laudanum.History
, Parks and Gardens, Retrieved 16 April 2017 His great-grandson Vivian Smith was created

Baron Bicester Baron Bicester, of Tusmore in the County of Oxford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 29 June 1938 for the banker Vivian Smith. the title is held by his great-grandson, the fifth Baron, who succeeded his firs ...

in 1938.

References

thePeerage.com – John Smith
*

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John 1767 births 1842 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

Tory MPs (pre-1834) Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge