Bernard Smith (MP)

[2] He was the son of Walter Smith (d.1555), a merchant of Totnes, whose Easter Sepulchre type monument survives in the south chancel aisle of St Mary's Church, Totnes.

[3][1] At the Dissolution of the Monasteries Walter had purchased Totnes Priory and some of its lands which in 1544 he conveyed to feoffees for the uses of himself and his son Bernard.

[5] One of the earliest surviving recorded events of his career was his seizure in 1545 of a Spanish ship and its cargo which resulted in his censure by the Privy Council and an order for him to restore both to their owner.

[2] He purchased further lands near to those formerly belonging to Totnes Priory inherited from his father, and was subjected to a lawsuit due to his having cut-off the water supply to the mills of Totnes Castle.

He was succeeded by his daughter and sole heiress Eleanor Smith, then the wife of John Wrey.

Arms of Smith of Totnes, as seen impaled by Wrey on monument to John I Wrey (d. 1597) in Tawstock Church, Devon. Wrey's son John II Wrey was the 3rd husband of Smith's daughter Eleanor Smith: Barry undé of sixteen argent and azure on a chief gules three barnacles or . Pole (d. 1635) gives the arms as: Barry undé of six argent and azure on a chief gules three barnacles or [ 1 ]
Arms of Wrey ( Sable, a fesse between three pole-axes argent helved gules [ 6 ] ) impaling Smith of Totnes; detail from monument, now in Tawstock church, of John II Wrey (d.pre 1596), 3rd husband of Eleanor Smith