Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/19

 which reaches its climax in the account of the indignities inflicted upon a bailiff caught within the liberties of the Mint (this is effectively utilised in the opening chapters of Ainsworth's ‘Jack Sheppard’).  ‘Memoirs of the Life and Times of the famous Jonathan Wild, together with the Lives of modern Rogues … that have been executed since his death,’ London, 1726, 12mo (with cuts).  ‘Court Intrigue, or an Account of the Secret Memoirs of the British Nobility and others,’ London, 1730, 12mo.



SMITH, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1684–1766), Roman catholic prelate, born at Fochabers, Morayshire, in 1684, was admitted into the Scots College at Paris in 1698. He returned to Scotland in deacon's orders in 1709, but was not ordained priest till 1712. From 1718 to 1730 he was procurator of the Scots College at Paris. In 1735 he was consecrated bishop of Mosinopolis in partibus infidelium, and appointed coadjutor to Bishop James Gordon, vicar-apostolic of the Lowland district, on whose death in 1746 he succeeded to the vicariate. He died at Edinburgh on 21 Aug. 1766.

He published two catechisms for the use of the catholics of Scotland. These received the formal approbation of the holy office on 20 March 1749–50.



SMITH, ALEXANDER (1760?–1829), seaman, mutineer, and settler. [See .]

SMITH, ALEXANDER (1830–1867), Scottish poet, was the son of Peter Smith, a lace-pattern designer in Kilmarnock, where he was born on 31 Dec. 1830 (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 311). His mother, whose name was Helen Murray, was of good highland lineage. In his childhood the family removed to Paisley, and thence to Glasgow. After a good general education, and some hesitation as to whether he should not study for the church, Smith learned pattern-designing, at which he worked both in Glasgow and Paisley. His literary tastes quickly developed; his mind was usually busy with verse, and he proved apparently an indifferent designer of lace patterns. Some of his most intelligent Glasgow friends reckoned him also but a sorry poet, in spite of the distinction he gained in the local debating club, the Addisonian Society; and it was only after he had submitted some of his work to [q. v.] that his characteristic individuality came to be recognised. Through Gilfillan's instrumentality specimens of his verse appeared in 1851–2 in the ‘Critic’ and the ‘Eclectic Review.’ From the first his work was the subject of keen controversy, and the appearance of his ‘Life Drama’ in 1853 provoked a literary warfare. Receiving 100l. for his book, Smith deserted pattern-designing, and visited London with his friend John Nichol, afterwards professor of English literature at Glasgow. Passing south they saw Miss Martineau at Ambleside, and Mr. P. J. Bailey at Nottingham. In London they made the acquaintance of Arthur Helps, G. H. Lewes (who strenuously upheld Smith's work in the ‘Leader’), and other persons of note. Returning, Smith was for a week the guest of the Duke of Argyll at Inverary. Here he met Lord Dufferin, whom he subsequently visited in Ireland. After editing for a short time the ‘Glasgow Miscellany’ and doing other journalistic and literary work in Glasgow, he was appointed in 1854 secretary to Edinburgh University.

Smith's official work occupied him daily from ten to four, and he gave his evenings to literature and society. He was perhaps the founder—he was at least a member—of the Raleigh Club, at which on occasional evenings men of letters and artists smoked together. His salary of 150l. as university secretary was increased to 200l. on his undertaking the additional duties of registrar and secretary to the university council. In the winter of 1854 he made the acquaintance of Sydney Dobell, then sojourning in Edinburgh, and they collaborated in a series of sonnets on the Crimean war. This co-operation emphasised the attitude of both writers, whose style as ‘spasmodic’ poets had just been caricatured in ‘Blackwood's Magazine’ for May 1854. After his marriage in 1857 Smith passed his summer holidays in Skye, his wife's home. Skye influenced the literary production of his best days. Meanwhile his official and literary work went on, and as family demands increased he found prose more readily profitable than verse, and contributed to newspapers, magazines, and encyclopædias. Incessant labour overtaxed his strength. He became seriously ill in the late autumn of 1866, and he died on 5 Jan. 1867 at Wardie, near Granton, Midlothian; he was buried in Warriston cemetery, Edinburgh. His friends erected over his grave an Iona cross, having in the centre a bronze medallion with profile by the sculptor Brodie. 