mained until 1782. Subsequently he became an assistant to James Heath (1757–1834) [q. v.] In 1787 Smith obtained his first independent employment from John Bell (1745–1831) [q. v.], for whose series of ‘British Poets’ he engraved many of the illustrations. He became one of the ablest of English line engravers, his small plates being specially distinguished for correctness of drawing and beauty of finish. Through his relative John Hoole [q. v.], the translator, he became known to Alderman Boydell, who commissioned him to engrave Northcote's picture of the ‘Death of Wat Tyler;’ the print was published in 1796, and earned for him his election as an associate of the Royal Academy in the following year. In 1798 he executed a large plate from Leonardo da Vinci's cartoon of the Holy Family in the possession of the academy. During the remainder of his life Smith was extensively employed upon the illustrations to fine editions of standard works, such as Macklin's Bible, 1800; Boydell's ‘Shakespeare’ (the smaller series), 1802; Kearsley's ‘Shakespeare,’ 1806; Bowyer's edition of Hume's ‘History of England,’ 1806; and Sharpe's ‘British Classics.’ He engraved many of R. Smirke's designs for the ‘Arabian Nights,’ 1802; ‘Gil Blas,’ 1809; and ‘Don Quixote,’ 1818; and was one of the artists employed upon the official publication, ‘Ancient Marbles in the British Museum.’ His latest work was a large plate from Heaphy's picture, ‘The Duke of Wellington giving Orders to his Generals,’ which he did not live to complete. He died of apoplexy on 23 June 1819. Smith married in 1791, and left a widow, one daughter, and four sons; two of the latter are noticed below. His sister Maria, who was an artist, and exhibited portraits between 1791 and 1814, married William Ross, a miniature-painter, and was the mother of Sir William Charles Ross [q. v.]
Frederick William Smith (d. 1835), sculptor, second son of Anker Smith, was born at Pimlico, London. He studied at the Royal Academy, and was the first pupil of Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey [q. v.] He began to exhibit in 1818, sending a bust of his father, and in 1821 gained the academy gold medal with a group of Hæmon and Antigone; in 1824 he exhibited a beautiful group of a mother and child from the ‘Murder of the Innocents,’ and he also modelled some excellent busts of Chantrey, Brunel, Allan Cunningham, and others, appearing at the academy for the last time in 1828. Smith was a sculptor of great talent and promise, but died prematurely at Shrewsbury on 18 Jan. 1835 (Gent. Mag. 1855, i. 327).
His younger brother, Herbert Luther Smith (1811–1870), was a painter of scriptural and historical subjects, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and British Institution from 1830 to 1854; later he was employed as a copyist by the queen. He died on 13 March 1870.
[Redgrave's Dict. of British Artists; Sandby's History of the Royal Academy; Knight's Cyclopædia of Biography; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33405); Athenæum, 1835, p. 75.]
SMITH, AQUILLA, M.D. (1806–1890), Irish antiquary, born at Nenagh, co. Tipperary, on 28 April 1806, was the youngest child of William Smith of that town, and of Catherine Doolan, his wife. He received his education first at private schools in Dublin, and afterwards at Trinity College. He embraced the medical profession, in which his career was distinguished. He received the degree of M.D. honoris causa from his university in 1839, was king's professor of materia medica and pharmacy in the school of physic from 1864 to 1881, and from 1851 to 1890 represented the Irish College of Physicians on the council of medical education.
Smith was an active member of the Royal Irish Academy from 1835 until his death in 1890, and was reckoned in his lifetime the best authority on Irish coins, of which he was a large collector. At his death his collection of Irish coins and tokens was acquired by the academy for 350l. The Numismatic Society acknowledged his services by conferring its medal upon him in 1884. Smith was a copious writer on antiquarian subjects, mainly numismatics. His more important contributions to the department of archæology were published in the ‘Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,’ 1839–53; ‘Transactions of the Kilkenny Archæological Society,’ 1852–63; the ‘Numismatic Chronicle,’ 1863–83, and by the Irish Archæological Society. Of his papers on medical topics, the most valuable is his account of the ‘Origin and Early History of the College of Physicians in Ireland,’ published in the ‘Journal of Medical Science’ (vol. xix.).
[Memoir by J. W. M., privately published; private information.]
SMITH, ARCHIBALD (1813–1872), mathematician, born on 10 Aug. 1813 at Greenhead, Glasgow, was the only son of James Smith (1782–1867) [q. v.], merchant, of Glasgow, by his wife Mary, daughter of Alexander Wilson, professor of astronomy
