many irregularities, such as hiring out the men to merchant ships, taking money for discharging prest men, making false musters, being drunk, and often absent for several days together. On these charges he was tried by court-martial on 1 Sept. 1703, was found guilty, and was dismissed from his command, with a fine of six months' pay. For upwards of two years he continued memorialising the queen, but without success; he then offered himself as a midshipman on board some flagship, but was refused by Sir Clowdisley Shovell, the commander-in-chief of the fleet; and in February 1706–7, being almost destitute, he took a passage in a Swedish ship bound to Lisbon, where he thought he had some interest. Off the Isle of Wight, however, the Swede was overhauled by a Dunkirk privateer, and Smith was taken out of her and carried to Dunkirk. There, apparently without much pressing, he entered the French service, and was appointed to serve—probably as pilot—on board the admiral-galley of the squadron which captured the Nightingale off Harwich on 24 Aug. 1707 [see Jermy, Seth].
When Jermy was brought on board the admiral-galley, he saw and recognised Smith and threw himself on him, sword in hand, exclaiming ‘Traitor, you shall not escape me as you have done the hangman.’ Jermy, however, was seized and held back, but when Smith angrily desired that the prisoner might be sent to another galley, he was disdainfully told that he might go himself if he liked. The squadron had been intended to attack Harwich, and Smith now urged that the attempt should be made. The French admiral, De Langeron, refused, as the galleys had suffered severely in the engagement with the Nightingale. On their return Smith laid a formal complaint against De Langeron, whose reasons were held to be sufficient. He then suggested that, with the Nightingale and another ship then at Dunkirk, he should be allowed to make the attempt. He accordingly received a commission to command the Nightingale, and on 24 Dec. he put to sea, in company with the Squirrel, another English prize. On the forenoon of the 27th, as they were approaching Harwich, they were sighted and chased by Captain Nicholas Haddock [q. v.] in the Ludlow Castle. After a chase of ten hours the Nightingale was overtaken, and after a short resistance was captured. The Squirrel escaped. Smith, it was said, had wished to blow up the ship, but was forcibly prevented by his men. When taken, he was put on shore at Hull, whence he was sent up to London, tried at the Old Bailey on 2 June 1708, found guilty of bearing arms against his country, was sentenced to death, and was executed on 18 June with all the barbarities directed by law.
[The Captains of the Nightingale, in English Hist. Review, January 1889, p. 65, where the whole story is examined by the light of the original documents.]
SMITH, THOMAS (1638–1710), non-juring divine and scholar, the son of John Smith, a London merchant, was born in the parish of Allhallows, Barking, on 3 June 1638. He was admitted batler of Queen's College, Oxford, on 7 Aug. 1657, and matriculated as servitor on 29 Oct. following, graduating B.A. on 15 March 1651, and M.A. on 13 Oct. 1653, in which year he was appointed master of Magdalen school in succession to Timothy Parker. He was elected probationer-fellow of Magdalen College in 1666 (when he resigned the schoolmastership), actual fellow in 1667, and dean in 1674, the year in which he graduated B.D. Elected vice-president of Magdalen in 1682, he proceeded D.D. in 1683, and became bursar of the college in 1686.
Meanwhile, in 1668, Smith went out to the east as chaplain to Sir Daniel Harvey, ambassador at Constantinople, whence he returned after a sojourn of three years, bringing with him a number of Greek manuscripts, three of which he presented to the Bodleian Library. He now devoted several years to the expression of his opinions and observations upon the affairs of the Levant, and especially upon the state of the Greek church, and he gained the name at Oxford of 'Rabbi' Smith or 'Tograi' Smith. Though he lacked the profoundly tolerant spirit of his contemporary, Sir Paul Rycaut [q. v.], he seems to have shared his project of a rapprochement with the eastern church. In 1676 he went once more abroad, travelling in western and southern France, and in the following year he was urged by Bishop Pearson, Dr. Fell, and others to undertake another journey to the east in quest of manuscripts; but Smith's scholarship was not fortified with an adventurous spirit, and he declined the risks of another journey. He held for about two years (1678-9) the post of chaplain to Sir Joseph Williamson [q. v.]], one of the two secretaries of state. ; Wood states that 'he performed a great deal of drudgery ' for Williamson for years, but was 'at length dismissed without any reward.' He returned to Magdalen upon his election as vice-president in 1683, with a view to following up his career at Oxford. He failed, in spite of an appeal to the visitor, to obtain the post
