Sir Robert Smyth, 5th Baronet (10 January 1744 – 12 April 1802) was a British politician and revolutionary 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. T ...

between 1774 and 1790. Smyth was the son of Rev. Robert Smyth, vicar of Woolavington, Sussex, and his wife Dorothy Lloyd, daughter of Thomas Lloyd of Dolyglunnen, Merioneth. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 3 April 1761 and matriculated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

at Easter 1762. He succeeded his cousin Sir Trafford Smyth, 4th Baronet in the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on 8 December 1765. In 1766 he was awarded MA and in 1775 MA. In the 1774 general election Smyth was returned as Member of Parliament for Cardigan Boroughs but was unseated on petition on 7 December 1775. He married Charlotte Sophia Blake on 17 September 1776. In the 1780 general election he was returned as MP for

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

. He stood at Colchester again in 1784 and was defeated but was then seated on petition. He did not stand again in 1790. Smyth then became a banker and settled in Paris. In 1792 William Lindsay wrote that Smyth had become "a violent democrat ... intimately connected with some of the leading republicans" adding that he "is extremely violent, and will do all the mischief in his power during his stay here". He was a member of the British revolutionary club in Paris and a close friend of

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

. At a dinner in November 1792 he renounced his title and proposed a toast to "The speedy abolition of all hereditary titles and feudal distinctions". However he was imprisoned during the Terror. In 1796 Paine helped him obtain a passport to go to Hamburg to collect remittances from England. He did not return to England for, as Paine wrote to the French minister, he liked "neither the Government nor climate of England". Smyth died in Paris on 12 April 1807.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smyth, Robert 1744 births 1802 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of Lincoln's Inn British bankers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 Baronets in the Baronetage of England