John Smith (steward of Berkeley)

John Smith (1567–1640) of North Nibley in Gloucestershire, was an English lawyer and antiquary and was the genealogist of the Berkeley family.

In 1597 he was awarded by that family the more lucrative and important office of steward of the hundred and liberty of Berkeley.

As steward of the manor, Smith had charge of the muniments room at the castle, and devoted himself to studying the valuable deeds and papers which had accumulated there over the centuries.

In 1621, Smith was elected Member of Parliament for Midhurst in Sussex, but took little part in the increasingly contentious politics of the time.

[1] Smith wrote at least 20 books, which in 1639 having just finished his last major work, the History of the Hundred of Berkeley, he called "the recreations of my last 50 years".