Henry Smith, Esq.
(1794-1874)
29 April 1861

Volume 3, page 162, sitting number 3337.

Born on 12 December 1794 at Wilford in Nottinghamshire, Henry Smith was the third son of the banker and Tory Member of Parliament Samuel Smith.

On 14 July 1824 he married Lady Lucy Leslie-Melville, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Leven. [The following year his sister Charlotte Smith married the Honourable Alexander Leslie-Melville, fifth son of the 7th Earl of Leven.]

Henry Smith died, aged 79, at Bournemouth on 7 February 1874, leaving an estate valued at £140,000.

The following obituary appeared in the Nottinghamshire Guardian (13 February 1874):

‘THE LATE MR HENRY SMITH OF WILFORD — Our second edition on Saturday contained an announcement of this highly respected gentleman’s death at Bournemouth in his 80th year. Wherever he was known the intelligence will be received with deep sorrow. His long life was ceaselessly devoted to the able, unostentatious, and faithful performance of every known duty. For many years he suffered from almost total deafness, an infirmity which precluded his taking that active part in public affairs for which his Christian firmness (happily tempered by Christian meekness), his clear judgment, and intellectual attainments generally would have admirably qualified him; but he was always, even in the weakness of extreme age, zealously engaged in the promotion of works of philanthropy and religion - local and national. The management of the various charitable institutions of which he was the acting trustee, and indeed a “faithful steward,” occupied to the very last much of his time and thought. It may be truly said that the deep but silent stream of his discriminating charity never ceased to flow […] In early life he married a daughter of the Earl of Leven and Melville, a lady of refined tastes and decided Christian character, whose every thought, conviction, and aim were in perfect accord with those of her husband. We are sure that the memory of the beloved and venerated Lady Lucy Smith is yet fresh in the hearts of many of our readers. We need scarcely add that for more than half a century Mr Henry Smith was a partner in the firm of Messrs. Samuel Smith and Co. of Nottingham, the oldest existing country bank in the kingdom, as also in that of Messrs. Smith, Ellison and Co., Lincoln. Mr Henry Abel Smith, of Wilford House, is his only son.’