He entered Merchant Taylors' School in January 1814, and St. John's College, Oxford, as Andrew's exhibitioner, in 1822; he graduated B.A.
[1][2] He was ordained that year, and became a curate at Sellinge; and then at Stoughton, West Sussex and East Marden in 1833.
[1] Before being ordained Smith published his major botanical work, A Catalogue of rare or remarkable Phanogamous Plants collected in South Kent, London, 1829, which is dated from Sandgate.
The Catalogue, of 76 pages, is arranged by the Linnæan system, deals critically with several groups, and had coloured plates drawn by the author.
[1] Smith was the first to recognise several British plants, describing Statice occidentalis under the name S. binervosa in the Supplement to English Botany (1831, p. 63), and Filago apiculata in The Phytologist for 1846 (p. 575).