In 1831 he married his first cousin Esther, daughter of George Faucett, and they had thirteen children, including Vincent Arthur Smith.

He was licensed by the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland in 1833, and received the degree of MD honoris causa in 1839.

Smith was King's Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in the School of Physic from 1864 to 1881, and physician-in-ordinary to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital.

[2] Development work in Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century – the making of canals, reclamation of wasteland, and digging for peat – unearthed an unprecedented amount of finds.

[3] Smith published numerous books and contributed articles to the Numismatic Chronicle, the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy and the Dublin Journal of Medical Science.