Thomas Smibert

Thomas Smibert (1810–1854) was a Scottish journalist, writer and poet.

Life

He was born on 8 February 1810 at Peebles, where his father, Thomas Smibert, a leather-merchant, was provost (1808–11); his mother's name was Janet Tait. Educated there, he was apprenticed to a druggist, and then qualified as a surgeon at Edinburgh University.

Smibert set up as a surgeon at Innerleithen, near Peebles, but left after a year when faced by personal and business problems. From Peebles he contributed to ''Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'', of which he became sub-editor and editor between 1837 and 1842. During that period he wrote for the periodical about 650 literary articles, tales, and biographical sketches. He was also a large contributor to Chambers's ''Information for the People''.

In 1842 Smibert became sub-editor of ''The Scotsman'', but a legacy meant he shortly dropped journalism for literature. In his later years he was a frequent contributor to ''Hogg's Instructor''. He died at Edinburgh on 16 January 1854.

Works

Smibert wrote:

*''Condé's Wife'' (1842), a historical play that had a run of nine nights at the Edinburgh Theatre Royal.
*''Clans of the Highlands of Scotland'' (Edinburgh, 1850).
*''Io Anche! Poems chiefly Lyrical'' (Edinburgh, 1851), a collection of his verse including the song ''The Scottish Widow's Lament'', with a Tweeddale setting and in dialect.

Notes

External links

;Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smibert, Thomas
1810 births
1854 deaths
Scottish journalists
Scottish poets