Edward Smith (judge)

[1] The family's earlier history is uncertain, although it has been suggested that they were related to the Smythe Baronets of Eshe Hall, Durham, and also to Sir Thomas Smith (1513-1577), who was Secretary of State to Elizabeth I.

[2] Edward's sister, Arabella, described as "a lady of surpassing beauty and charm", married against both families' wishes a "wild young Oxford student" called Charles Howard, who later unexpectedly became the 3rd Earl of Nottingham.

[6] This implies that Smith opposed the execution of Charles I, which seems to be confirmed by the fact that after the Restoration his past career as a Parliamentarian was not held against him.

[1] He gained the goodwill, which was then crucial to the career of any Irish judge, of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who found him to be honest, good-natured and hard-working.

Ball suggests that he was not prepared to continue in the public service on only one income: but he was certainly rich enough to buy the manor of Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, where he spent his later years.

Although he wrote to the King, when announcing his retirement, that he intended to spend his last years in religious contemplation, he retained his seat in the Commons, and was reasonably diligent in attendance there until he stepped down as an MP in 1678.

Detail of the tomb of Alice Lucy , Sir Edward Smith's mother-in-law, in St. Leonard's Church, Charlecote. Her husband Sir Thomas Lucy is buried in the same tomb.
Church of St John the Evangelist, Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire , where Smith is buried