John Mott-Smith (November 25, 1824 – August 10, 1895) was the first dentist to set up a permanent practice in the Kingdom of Hawaii.

His father was also named John Mott Smith (1795–1832), generally spelled without the hyphen, and mother was Amanda Day.

In 1826 the family moved to White Plains, New York, with the school, and then in 1832 to Middletown, Connecticut, where his father became a professor of classical languages at the new Wesleyan University.

He used the paper to defend the monarchy, which gained him favor with King Kamehameha V, who made it the official government publication.

[4] With the king's influence, he was an investor with fellow American politician Charles Coffin Harris in the first Hawaiian Hotel.

[6] After Kamehameha V's death at the end of 1872, Mott-Smith was out of political power and resumed practising dentistry[3] while he was on the Board of Education until 1874.

[4] It was widely suspected that Kalākaua's replacement of his cabinet was influenced by Claus Spreckels, who refinanced the King's debts the night before, in order to secure water rights for his sugarcane plantation on Maui.

Son Ernest Augustus Mott-Smith was born May 12, 1873, went to Harvard Law School briefly, married Anna Elizabeth Paty in 1896 and became active in politics.

[17] The three-story brick building built in 1897 at the corner of Hotel and Fort Streets (the site of his former office, later known as The Hub) contained the second electric elevator in Hawaii.