1850. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 7 Nov. 1845, and practised in the court of chancery. He died at Sidney Lodge, Wimbledon, Surrey, on 14 Jan. 1871. In 1834–5 he published, in two volumes, ‘A Treatise on the Practice of the Court of Chancery,’ a very useful work, the seventh edition of which he brought out in conjunction with Alfred Smith in 1862; there was also an American edition (Philadelphia, 1839). Smith likewise wrote ‘A Handbook of the Practice of the Court of Chancery,’ 1848 (2nd edit. 1855), and ‘A Treatise on the Principles of Equity,’ 1856.
[Matric. Regist. Trinity Hall, Cambridge; Law Times, 1871, iv. 369; Hardy's Catalogue of Lord Chancellors, &c. 1843, p. 116.]
SMITH, JOHN STAFFORD (1750–1836), composer and musical antiquary, son of Martin Smith, organist of Gloucester Cathedral, was born at Gloucester in 1750. He received his earliest musical instruction from his father, and subsequently became a pupil of Dr. Boyce and a chorister of the Chapel Royal under James Nares [q. v.] In 1784 he was appointed a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and in 1785 a lay vicar of Westminster Abbey. In 1802 he succeeded Dr. Arnold as one of the organists of the Chapel Royal, and from 1805 to 1817 held the office of master of the children. He published five collections of glees, many of which have enjoyed well-deserved popularity. ‘Let happy lovers fly,’ ‘Blest pair of syrens,’ ‘While fools their time,’ and ‘Return, blest days,’ all gained prizes between 1773 and 1777; other familiar compositions by Smith are ‘What shall he have that killed the deer?’ ‘Hark, the hollow woods resounding,’ and the madrigal, ‘Flora now calleth forth each flower.’ In 1779 he published a collection of English songs composed about 1500, taken from manuscripts of that date. In 1793 appeared a volume of anthems, and in 1812 his most important work, ‘Musica Antiqua,’ a collection of old music from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. Sir John Hawkins, in the preface to his ‘History of Music,’ acknowledges the valuable assistance which Smith gave him in the preparation of the work. He died on 20 Sept. 1836. In 1844 his interesting library was dispersed at an obscure auction-room in Gray's Inn Road, and—no connoisseurs being present—many valuable manuscripts were lost to the musical world.
[Grove's Dictionary of Music, iii. 540; Fétis's Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, viii. 222; Naumann's Hist. of Music, p. 1276.]
SMITH, JOHN THOMAS (1766–1833), topographical draughtsman and antiquary, son of Nathaniel Smith, a sculptor who afterwards became a printseller at the sign of Rembrandt's Head in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane, was born on 23 June 1766 in a hackney coach in which his mother was returning home from a visit to her brother in Seven Dials, London. His father was then chief assistant to Joseph Nollekens, R.A., the sculptor, whose studio young Smith entered in 1778, but left it in 1781 to become a pupil of John Keyse Sherwin [q. v.], the mezzotint-engraver. At the end of three years he gave up engraving and found employment in making topographical drawings of London for Mr. Crowle, and others in the neighbourhood of Windsor for Mr. Richard Wyatt. He had thoughts of going on the stage, but eventually settled down in 1788 as a drawingmaster at Edmonton. In 1791 he began the compilation of his favourite work, ‘Antiquities of London and its Environs,’ which was finished in 1800. He returned to London in 1795, and for some time practised as a portrait-painter and engraver. In 1797 he published ‘Remarks on Rural Scenery,’ with twenty etchings of cottages by himself, and in 1807 the ‘Antiquities of Westminster,’ for part of which the descriptive text was written by John Sidney Hawkins [q. v.]; but a disagreement having arisen between him and Smith, it was continued by the latter, who prefixed an ‘Advertisement’ describing the dispute. Smith's statement was challenged by Hawkins in a ‘Correct Statement and Vindication’ of his conduct, which was answered by Smith in a ‘Vindication’ (1808), to which Hawkins issued a ‘Reply’ (1808). ‘Sixty-two additional Plates’ to this work were published in 1809. There followed ‘The Ancient Topography of London,’ begun in 1810 and completed in 1815.
In September 1816 Smith was appointed to succeed William Alexander (1767–1816) [q. v.] as keeper of the prints and drawings in the British Museum, and retained that office until his death. His official duties did not interfere with the continuance of his literary work. In 1817 he published ‘Vagabondiana, or Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the Streets of London,’ illustrated with portraits of notorious beggars drawn and etched by himself from the life; an introduction was written by Francis Douce [q. v.] His last and best known work was ‘Nollekens and his Times,’ issued in 1828. This has been said to be ‘perhaps the most candid biography ever published in the English language,’ and was probably influenced by the smallness of the legacy left to him by
