James Taylor was made principal, and Smith professor of critical and exegetical theology, evidences of religion, Hebrew, and Syriac. He resigned in 1857, went abroad, and obtained at Tubingen the degrees of M.A. and Ph.D. In 1858 he became Wellbeloved's assistant and successor at St. Saviourgate chapel, York.
In 1870, after Kenrick had declined to serve on the score of age, Smith accepted Dean Stanley's invitation to join the New Testament revision company. His participation in the celebration of the eucharist in Henry VII's chapel, Westminster Abbey, on the morning of the first meeting of the company (June 1870) led to much criticism. The upper house of the Canterbury convocation, on the motion of Samuel Wilberforce [q. v.], passed a resolution condemning the appointment to either company of any person 'who denies the Godhead of our Lord,' and affirming that any such one should cease to act; a similar resolution was rejected by the lower house (Feb. 1871). Smith bore all this with an inflexible and irritating calmness. His work as a reviser was diligent and conscientious, though he was often in a minority of one. In 1873 the university of Jena made him D.D.
In July 1875 Smith left York for the ministry of Upper chapel, Sheffield, but in September 1876 he was promoted to the principalship of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, an office which he held till 1888, combining with it from 1877 the charge of Park-y-velvet chapel, Carmarthen, Retiring from the active ministry, he resided first at Bath, and latterly at Bowdon, Cheshire. Among unitarians his position was that of a mild conservatism; hence he was more at home in Carmarthen College than he had been in the atmosphere of the Manchester College. He died at Cranwells, Bowdon, on 28 Feb. 1902, and was buried at Hale, Cheshire, on 4 March. He married (1) in 1843 Agnes Jane, second daughter of John Fletcher of Liverpool, by whom he had three sons and one daughter; and (2) in 1894 Elizabeth Anne, daughter of Edward Todd of Tadcaster, who survived him.
Besides sermons and lectures, singly and in collections, his chief works are:
- 'The Priesthood of Christ,' 1843 (Letters to John Pye Smith, D.D.; two series).
- 'English Orthodoxy, as it is and as it might be,' 1863.
- 'Eternal Punishment,' 1865, 12mo; 4th edit. 1875 (reprinted in 'The Religion and Theology of Unitarians,' 1906).
- 'The Bible and Popular Theology,' 1871 (3rd edit. 1872); revised as 'The Bible and its Theology as popularly taught,' 1892, 1901.
- 'The Spirit and the Word of Christ,' 1874; 2nd edit. 1875.
- 'The Prophets and their Interpreters,' 1878.
- 'Texts and Margins of the Revised New Testament affecting Theological Doctrine,' 1881.
- 'Chapters on Job for Young Readers,' 1887.
- 'Confession of Christ what it is not, and what it is,' 1890.
He translated in an abridged form Tholuck's 'The Credibility of the Evangelic History Illustrated,' 1844; 'The Prophecies relating to Nineveh and the Assyrians, translated … with Introduction and Notes,' 1857; and in 'The Holy Scriptures of the Old Covenant,' 1857-62 (a continuation of Wellbeloved's work), I and II Samuel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. To J. R. Beard's 'Voices of the Church' (1845) he contributed 'The Fallacy of the Mythical Theory of Dr Strauss.'
[The Times, 4 March 1902; Services at Chapel Lane, Bradford, 1841; Manning, Hist. of Upper Chapel, Sheffield, 1900 (portrait); memoir (by present writer) in Christian Life, March 1902; information from Rev. G. Hamilton Vance.]
SMITH, GOLDWIN (1823–1910), controversialist, was born on 13 Aug. 1823 at 15 Friar Street, Reading, where a tablet now records the fact. His father, Richard Prichard Smith (1795-1867), a native of Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, was son of Richard Smith (1758-1820), rector of Long Marston, Yorkshire; he was educated at Repton and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.B. in 1817 and M.D. in 1825; was elected F.R.C.P. in 1826; practised with great success for many years at Reading; helped to promote the Great Western railway, of which he became a director, and ultimately retired to a large country house, Mortimer House, eight miles from Reading. Goldwin Smith was his son by his first wife, Elizabeth, one of the ten children of Peter Breton, of Huguenot descent. She died at Reading on 19 Nov. 1833, and was buried in St. Lawrence's churchyard, having borne her husband three sons and two daughters, of whom only Goldwin survived youth. In 1839 Goldwin's father married a second wife, Katherine, daughter of Sir Nathaniel Dvikinfield, fifth baronet, and sister of Sir Henry Dukinfield, sixth and last baronet, rector of St. Giles's, Reading; with his stepmother Goldwin's relations were always distant. Goldwin was named after his mother's uncle, Thomas Goldwin
