poser to the Chapel Royal, Dublin. He possessed a fine tenore robusto voice, and considerable gifts as a composer of church music. His most important work was an oratorio, ‘The Revelation.’ In 1837 he published a volume of cathedral music, comprising services and anthems, a ‘Veni Creator’ and a ‘Magnificat’ and Nunc Dimittis in B flat, which are well known in English cathedrals. Of his secular music, the trio ‘O Beata Virgine’ (1840?) and the quartet ‘Love wakes and weeps’ attained considerable popularity. Smith died in Dublin on 12 Nov. 1861, and was succeeded in his professorship by Dr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Stewart [q. v.]
[Grove's Dictionary of Music, iii. 540; Musical Times, 1 Jan. 1862.]
SMITH, JOHN ABEL (1801–1871), banker and politician, born in 1801, was the eldest son of John Smith of Blendon Hall, Kent, a member of the banking family of which Robert Smith, first baron Carrington [q. v.], was the head. His mother was Mary, daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Tucker. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge (B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827), and joined the family banking firm of Smith, Payne, & Smith, of which he became chief partner. He entered parliament as M.P. for Midhurst in 1830, but at the general election in the following year he was returned for Chichester, for which he sat till 1859. He was again elected in 1863, and retained his seat till 1868, when the borough lost one of its representatives (Official Returns of Members of Parliament, vol. ii. index). A staunch liberal, he took an active part in the first Reform Bill, and was one of the leaders of the party which advocated the admission of Jews into parliament. In 1869 he introduced a bill for a further limitation of the hours during which public-houses might be kept open. He died on 7 Jan. 1871 at Kippington, near Sevenoaks. He was a magistrate for Middlesex and Sussex.
In 1827 he married Anne, daughter of Sir Samuel Clarke-Jervoise, bart., and widow of Ralph William Grey of Backworth House in Northumberland, by whom he had two sons, Jervoise, born in 1828, and Dudley Robert, born in 1830.
[Ward's Men of the Reign, p. 872; Times, 11 Jan. 1871; Burke's Landed Gentry, 4th edit.]
SMITH, JOHN CHALONER (1827–1895), civil engineer and writer on British mezzotints, was born in Dublin on 19 Aug. 1827. His father was a proctor of the ecclesiastical courts, and married a granddaughter of Travers Hartley, M.P. for Dublin in the Irish parliament. Chaloner Smith was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, in 1846, and in 1849 graduated B.A. He was articled to George Willoughby Hemans the engineer, and in 1857 was appointed engineer to the Waterford and Limerick railway. In 1868 he obtained a similar position from the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway, and held it till 1894. He carried out some important extensions of the line, and was mainly responsible for the loop-line crossing the Liffey, connecting the Great Northern and South-Eastern railways of Ireland.
But beyond his reputation as an engineer Chaloner Smith will be remembered for his notable work on ‘British Mezzotinto Portraits … with Biographical Notes’ (London, 1878–84, 4 pts.), which consists of a full catalogue of plates executed before 1820, with 125 autotypes from plates in Smith's possession. The latter were also issued separately. The print-room at the British Museum contains an interleaved copy with manuscript notes. Smith was an enthusiastic collector of engravings, principally mezzotints, which were sold after the completion of his book. Some of the best of the examples (especially those by Irish engravers) were purchased for the Dublin National Gallery through the liberality of Sir Edward Guinness (now Lord Iveagh).
For many years Chaloner Smith took a deep interest in the question of the financial relations between England and Ireland, and published two or three pamphlets on the subject. Just before his death he was examined before the royal commission which was appointed to consider the question. He died at Bray, co. Wicklow, on 13 March 1895.
[Irish Times, 15 March 1895; information from Rev. Canon Travers Smith of Dublin.]
SMITH, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (1712–1795), musician, born at Anspach in 1712, was the son of John Christopher Schmidt, a wool merchant of that city. The father, an enthusiastic amateur of music, threw up his business in 1716 and followed his friend Handel to England in the capacity of treasurer. Four years later he sent for the family he had left behind him in Germany. His eldest son, John Christopher, was sent to school at Clare's academy, Soho Square. He showed considerable aptitude for music, and at thirteen Handel offered to give him his first instruction in the art. He was, says Fétis, the only pupil Handel ever took
