Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/135

 ] to Jaroslav, where the emperor then was. In the course of the winter he obtained a grant of new privileges for the company, and in the spring went on to Moscow, whence he returned to Archangel and sailed for England on 28 May.

In 1603 Smith was re-elected governor of the East India Company, and, with one break 1606–7, continued to hold the office till July 1621, during which time the company's trade was developed and established. In January 1618–19 he was appointed one of the commissioners for the settlement of the differences with the Dutch, which, however, after some years of discussion, remained, for the time, unsettled (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 8 Jan. 1619, 6? Dec. 1624). His connection with the East India Company and the Muscovy Company led him to promote and support voyages for the discovery of the North-West Passage, and his name, as given by William Baffin [q. v.] to Smith's Sound, stands as a memorial to all time of his enlightened and liberal energy. In 1609 he obtained the charter for the Virginia Company, of which he was the treasurer, an office which he held till 1620, when, on being charged with enriching himself at the expense of the company, and on a demand for inquiry, he resigned [see ]. The charges against him, which were urged with great virulence, were formally pronounced to be false and slanderous, though Smythe was not held to be altogether free from blame (Cal. State Papers, North American, 16 July 1622, 20 Feb., 8 Oct. 1629, 23 April, 13 May, 15 June 1625); and the renewed inquiry was still going on, when he died at Sutton-at-Hone in Kent on 4 Sept. 1625. He was buried at Sutton, where, in the church, there is an elaborate monument to his memory. The charges against him had met with no acceptance from the king; to the last he was consulted on all important matters relating to shipping and to eastern trade (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 11 Dec. 1624), and for several years was one of the chief commissioners of the navy, as also governor of the French and Somer Islands companies.

Smythe amassed a large fortune, a considerable part of which he devoted to charitable purposes, and, among others, to the endowment of the free school of Tonbridge, which was originally founded by his grandfather, Sir Andrew Judd. He also established several charities for the poor of the parish of Tonbridge. He was three times married. The first two wives must have died comparatively young and without issue. He was already married to the third, Sarah, daughter of William Blount, when he was sheriff of London. By her he had one daughter (died unmarried in 1627) and three sons, two of whom seem to have predeceased their father. The eldest son, Sir John Smythe of Bidborough, married and had issue. The family, in the male line, ended with his great-great-grandson, Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe (1705–1778) [q. v.] The name, which is often spelt Smith, was always written Smythe by the man himself, as well as by the collateral family of Strangford.

A portrait belonging to the Skinners' Company has been identified with Smythe, though it has been supposed to be rather that of Sir Daniel Judd. An engraving by Simon Pass is inserted in the Grenville copy of Smith's ‘Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia’ (London, 1605, 4to). It is reproduced in Wadmore's memoir (1892).

[Sir Thomas Smith's Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia (4to, 1605). Wadmore's Sir Thomas Smythe, knt. (reprinted from Archæologia Cantiana, 1892); Stocker's Pedigree of Smythe of Ostenhanger (reprinted from Archæologia Cantiana, 1892); Markham's Voyages of William Baffin, with a copy of the portrait by Pass (Hakluyt Soc.), pp. ii–ix; Lefroy's Hist. of the Bermudas (Hakluyt Soc.), Index; Cal. State Papers, Dom., East Indies, North America; Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. App. pt. ii.; notes kindly supplied by William Foster, esq., of the India Office.]

 SMITH, THOMAS (fl. 1600–1627), soldier, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, as he styles himself on the title-page of the first edition (4to, 1600) of ‘The Art of Gunnery: wherein is set forth a number of serviceable secrets and practicall conclusions belonging to the Art of Gunnerie, by Arithmeticke skill to be accomplished: both pretie, pleasant and profitable for all such as are professors of the same facultie.’ In the dedication to Peregrine Bertie, lord Willoughby, ‘lord-governor of the town and castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and lord-warden of the east marches of England,’ he describes himself as ‘but one of the meanest soldiers in this garrison,’ though he claims to have been ‘brought up from childhood under a valiant captain in military profession, in which I have had a desire to practise and learn some secrets touching the orders of the field and training of soldiers, as also concerning the art of managing and shooting in great artillery.’ From the open preference which he gives to theory over practice it may be inferred that ‘he never buckled with the enemy in the field.’ In 1627 he published ‘Certain Additions to the Booke of Gunnery, with a Supply of