also received the welcome news that the government, at the instance of the representatives of British science, had granted him a pension of 100l. a year. When the association visited Dublin in 1835 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Trinity College.
He resigned his post with Sir J. V. B. Johnstone in 1834, but continued to act as his scientific adviser, and in 1838 was employed by the government as one of a small commission to select the stone for the new houses of parliament. When the report was signed he had nearly completed his seventieth year, but an increasing deafness was almost the only indication of old age. In August 1839 he was specially invited to attend the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham. On his way thither he stayed with some friends at Northampton. A cold of which he had made light assumed a serious form; he sank rapidly, and died on the 28th of the month. His grave is at the west end of St. Peter's Church, on the walls of which a memorial tablet and bust have been placed.
A strongly made man of good stature, Smith enjoyed on the whole good health, though in mid life he suffered from ague, contracted during his work in the marshlands, and from about his fiftieth to his sixtieth year was troubled with gravel; this, however, was cured ‘by temperance and camomile tea.’ His equanimity, patience, industry, and memory were alike remarkable; so also was his ingenuity in all mechanical devices for overcoming professional difficulties. His geological knowledge was freely imparted, so that, notwithstanding his reluctance to publish, his labours bore fruit in the hands of other workers, and his position as the real founder of stratigraphical geology has never been questioned.
According to his own statement (Memoirs, p. 125), three portraits of Smith were painted; the best, completed at a single sitting, by M. Fourau, was presented by his grand-nephew, W. Smith of Cheltenham, to the Geological Society, which also possesses a cast of the bust in St. Peter's Church, Northampton. Other portraits are by Solomon Williams and John Jackson (1778–1831) [q. v.]
[Geikie's Life of R. I. Murchison; Life and Letters of Sedgwick (Clark and Hughes); Obituary Notice, Proc. Geol. Soc. iii. 248; Trans. Geol. Soc. i. 325; Geolog. Mag. new ser. 1892, pp. 94–6; Edinb. Rev. xxix. 71–2, 310, lii. 45, lxiii. 4; Quarterly Rev. xlvii, 104–5; Phil. Mag. xxxv. 114, xlii. 249, liii. 112–19; Memoirs of William Smith, LL.D., by John Phillips, F.R.S., 1844.]
SMITH, WILLIAM (1808–1876), print-seller, son of a London print-seller, was born on 11 July 1808 in Lisle Street, Leicester Square. He proceeded to Cambridge University, but on the death of his father in 1835 he and his brother George succeeded to the business, and he was obliged to abandon his studies there. In 1836 he purchased the collection of engravings formed by John Sheepshanks [q. v.] The Dutch and Flemish portions, which were considered to be the most perfect in Europe, he sold to the British Museum for 5,000l., although he received larger offers from Holland. This was the first of a series of large transactions in which Smith rendered eminent services to the print-room. Among the collections which reached the Museum through his exertions were those of ‘Mr. Harding of Finchley’ (a very fine all-round collection) in 1841, of Coningham (engravings by early German and Italian artists) in 1844 and 1845, selections from the Aylesford and Woodburn collections in 1847, and some etchings of the utmost rarity by Rembrandt, procured at Baron Verstolk's sale at Amsterdam in 1847.
In 1848 Smith and his brother retired from business. From that time his labours ‘were wholly honorary and patriotic.’ He took a prominent part in establishing the National Portrait Gallery, being appointed an original trustee, and chosen deputy chairman in 1858. He was also actively engaged in the management of the Art Union of London. At one time he interested himself in acquiring an historical series of watercolour drawings by British artists, but, learning that the managers of South Kensington Museum were forming a similar collection, he allowed them, in his lifetime, to select what they pleased, and presented the remainder to the National Gallery of Ireland.
He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1852.
Smith died on 6 Sept. 1876, and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. His collections, which included many rare catalogues of galleries and exhibitions, with copious manuscript notes, he bequeathed to the library of the South Kensington Museum.
[Times, 16 Sept. 1876; Athenæum, 1876, ii. 377; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 259; Men of the Time, 9th ed. p. 910.]
SMITH, Sir WILLIAM (1813–1893), lexicographer, born in 1813, was the eldest son of William Smith of Enfield. His parents were nonconformists. Philip Smith [q. v.] was a younger brother. After some time spent as a theological student, William adopted the
