Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/61

 SMITH, HUGH (d. 1790), medical writer, son of a surgeon and apothecary, was born at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and obtained the degree of M.D. on 22 April 1755. He at first practised in Essex, but came to London in 1759, and fixed his residence in Mincing Lane. In 1760 he commenced a course of lectures on the theory and practice of physic, which were numerously attended. These, together with the publication of ‘Essays on Circulation of the Blood, with Reflections on Blood-letting,’ 1761, gave him a wide reputation. In 1762 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians. In 1765 he was elected physician to Middlesex Hospital, and in 1770 was chosen alderman of the Tower ward, a dignity which his professional duties compelled him to resign in 1772. About this time he removed to Blackfriars and devoted himself chiefly to consulting practice at home. He was accustomed to give two days of the week to the poor, from whom he would take no fee. He also assisted some of his patients pecuniarily. In 1780 he purchased a country residence at Streatham in Surrey. He died at Stratford in Essex on 26 Dec. 1790, and was buried in the church of West Ham. Besides the work mentioned above, he wrote ‘Formulæ Medicamentorum,’ London, 1772, 12mo. He must be distinguished from

(1736?–1789), possibly his son. The latter graduated M.D. at Leyden on 11 Nov. 1755, and practised at Hatton Garden, London. He married the daughter of Archibald Maclean, a lady of fortune, who inherited Trevor Park, East Barnet. He died, aged 53, on 6 June 1789, and was buried in East Barnet church. He was author of: 1. ‘The Family Physician,’ London, 1760, 4to; 5th edit. 1770. 2. ‘Letters to Married Women,’ 3rd edit. London, 1774, 12mo; republished in France, Germany, and America. 3. ‘A Treatise on the Use and Abuse of Mineral Waters,’ London, 1776, 8vo; 4th edit., 1780. 4. ‘Philosophical Inquiries into the Laws of Animal Life,’ London, 1780, 4to. 5. ‘An Essay on the Nerves,’ London, 1780, 8vo.

[For the elder Hugh Smith, see Life prefixed to Formulæ Medicamentorum, ed. 1791; European Mag. 1791, i. 21; Gent. Mag. 1790, ii. 1154, 1213. For the younger Hugh Smith, see Gent. Mag. 1789, i. 578; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 156; Lysons's Environs, iv. 23, 259. They are confused together in Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 241 and in Georgian Era, ii. 566.]

 SMITH, HUMPHREY (d. 1663), quaker, was born, probably at Little Cowarne, Herefordshire, where his father was a prosperous farmer. He was brought up strictly in the church of England, and well educated, although he can hardly be the Humphrey Smith, son of John, of the parish of Edvin Ralphe (seven miles from Cowarne), who matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, on 8 Sept. 1634, aged seventeen, and graduated B.A. on 3 July 1636 (, Alumni Oxon. early ser. p. 1372).

He soon occupied a farm worth 30l. a year, and married. He early began preaching, perhaps as an independent; George Fox says ‘he had been a priest.’ His addresses were ‘admired’ by hundreds, and he preached daily in the pulpits. After a time ‘his mouth was stopped’ owing to doubts of his own sincerity, and he held his last meeting at Stoke Bliss, a village near Cowarne.

About 1654 he fell in with the quakers, and before long gave up his occupation to be ready for the ‘call’ to go hither and thither preaching. On 14 Aug. 1655 he was arrested at a meeting in Bengeworth, close by Evesham, and confined for some weeks in a noisome cellar, the only aperture in which was four inches high. He seems to have specially annoyed the magistrates before whom he was brought for examination by the figurative statements that he ‘came from Egypt’ and ‘walked not the earth.’ George Fox visited him in prison (Journal, 1891, i. 253).

On 9 Feb. 1658 Smith was charged with misdemeanour for being at a meeting at Andover, where he was the first quaker to preach. He was committed by Judge Windham to Winchester gaol until he would give security for his good behaviour (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658–9, p. 158). He remained there until after March 1659, composing several of his books in prison. During 1660 he was at liberty. In May he wrote down a remarkable ‘Vision’ (published London, 1660, 4to), which he had of the great fire of 1666, and of the famine and fear which followed the appearance of the Dutch fleet in the Medway (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 80, 182; Collectitiæ, 1824, pp. 174–6).

On 14 Oct. 1661, while proceeding west to visit his only son Humphrey (afterwards of Saffron Walden, Essex), he was arrested at a meeting at Alton, Hampshire, and again lodged in Winchester gaol. Here he remained ‘from sessions to sizes, and from sizes to sessions,’ until in April 1663 he was attacked with gaol fever, and died in prison on 4 May 1663. A last letter to his son, dated 23 April, was printed as a broadside in 1663, and is in his works, published by the latter, London 1683, 4to. A fellow prisoner, Nicholas Complin, contri-