In 1694 he was appointed domestic chaplain to Nathaniel Crew, who in the following year collated him to the rectory and hospital of Gateshead, and on 25 September 1695 to the seventh prebendal stall in Durham Cathedral.
He was buried in the chapel of St John's College, where a monument was erected, with an inscription by his friend Thomas Baker.
[1] Smith undertook his major work, an edition of Bede's Historia, under the influence of Thomas Gale, encouraged by Ralph Thoresby, and with assistance of Humfrey Wanley on Old English.
His son George brought out in 1722 the Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque, auctore Venerabili Bæda … cura et studio Johannis Smith, S. T. P., Cambridge University Press.
[8] Smith also furnished materials for Edmund Gibson's edition of William Camden, and to James Anderson for his Historical Essay in 1705.