Rev. Richard Smith

Awarded half the compensation for 123 enslaved people in Barbados; the other half was awarded to the Rev. Robert Allen (q.v.). Son of Rev. Richard Smith the elder, grandson of Richard Smith of Islington, and brother of Mary Gibbes Allen (nee Smith) (each of whom q.v.).

1. Identified as Richard Smith Esq. Sutton Rectory Petworth Sussex a Proprietor, of Barbadoes provisional committee Barbados General Railroad. Will of the Reverend Richard Smith Clerk of Sutton Sussex proved 24/11/1848.

2. Adm. sizar (age 17) at TRINITY, Oct. 25, 1784. S. of Thomas [sic] of London. School, St Paul's. Matric. Michs. 1785; Scholar, 1788; B.A. (11th Wrangler) 1789; M.A. 1792. Fellow, 1791-1804; Junior Dean, 1798 and 1800-1. Ord. deacon (Peterb.) Dec. 20, 1789. R. of Sutton, Sussex, 1806-48, and R. of Bignor, 1826-48. Died Oct. 23, 1848, aged 82. (St Paul's Sch. Reg.; Northants. Clergy; G. Mag., 1848, II. 663.); Richard Smith was curate of North Stoke in 1805, curate of Duncton in 1815 and Rector of Sutton 1815.

3. A Richard Smith, son of Richard Smith of Island of Barbados, matriculated Queens College Oxford 10/10/1757 aged 18, was probably this man's father.

4. Two children were born to Richard Smith and Mary Evatt Smith and baptised in Petworth: George Acklom Smith (1797) and Charlotte Smith (1803). At St Luke's Chelsea, Capt. G. Acklom Smith, only son of the Rev. Richard Smith of Sutton Sussex to Anna-Maria, only daughter of the late Major Chalmers, 55th Regiment [10/09/1839]. Mary Evatt Smith, wife of Rev. Richard Smith, died at Sutton 26/04/1842 age 74. A Henry George Acklom Allen, infant, appears in the other half of the award for Mapps, to Robert Allen. The Rev. Richard Smith's sister Mary Gibbes Smith Allen had married Capt. Robert Allen in 1787 and lived at the Grove Lymington.

5. Richard Smith of St Mary Islington, the grandfather of Rev. Richard Smith and of Mary Gibbes Allen, was the father-in-law of Charlotte Smith (nee Turner), who has an entry in the ODNB as a novelist which details her complex financial ties to slavery (which she opposed). In the will of Richard Smith of Islington he described Richard Smith and Mary Gibbes Smith as the children of his deceased son Rev. Richard Smith, which is not consistent with the Cambridge University Alumni entry above.

T71/897 Barbados no. 2954A & B. Award split into two halves of £1259 6s 11d each. Claim by Robert Allen deceased and [the Rev.] Richard Smith, by attorney Wm Sharp, owners-in-fee.

1. Times 22/10/1845 p. 2; PROB 11/2084.

2. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900 [database online]; CCEd [database online] Person ID 72285.

3. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database online]. A brief estate history of Mapps at http://mjgen.com/freeman/plantation.html [accessed 18/05/2012] shows Richard Smith from England marrying the owner of the estate Mary Mapp in 1764, and the estate belonging to James Mapp Allen in 1846.

4. Familysearch.orge batch no. C07089-1. Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 12 (1839) p. 536; Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 171 (1842) p. 675. Charlotte Turner Smith and Judith Phillips Stanton ed., The collected letters of Charlotte Smith, ed. Judith Phillips Stanton (Indiana University Press, 2003).

5. Sarah M. Zimmerman, ‘Smith , Charlotte (1749–1806)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25790, accessed 17 Oct 2014].

We are grateful to William Norton for his assistance with compiling this entry.