John Benjamin Smith

John Benjamin Smith (7 February 1794 – 15 September 1879) was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1847 to 1874.

Before her marriage, she had lived with her sister Emma and her husband George Holt, parents of the merchant of that name.

[5] Edith Jane Smith married a lawyer named Edwin Lawrence, the Baconian enthusiast, two of whose elder brothers, William and James, both served as Liberal MPs and Lord mayors of London.

The Lawrence family was closely connected to Unitarianism, for example purchasing land for the move of the Essex Street Chapel.

[6] She also co-founded the Durning Library in Lambeth, south London, with her brother-in-law Edwin as one of the commissioners and another brother-in-law, James, to open it[7] A plaque to her hangs on the wall of the "Arts & Crafts masterpiece" that opened in Kennington in 1889.