[1] Educated at the Middle Temple, Smythe bought Leeds Castle in 1599 and carried out substantial rebuilding.
[3] He operated a monopoly in the trade of tin from the summer of 1605, partnered by members of the London Pewterer's Company.
[5] Smythe married three times, firstly, in September 1589, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir Thomas Scott of Smeeth, and widow of John Knatchbull of Mersham Hatch, Kent.
After the death of his son, John Smythe in 1632, his daughters Elizabeth, Lady Thornhill, and Mary Barrow subsequently sold Leeds Castle to Sir Thomas Colepeper of Hollingbourne.
[7] An embroidered Indian silk quilt from Bengal, an early surviving example of the use of such fabrics in England, was donated to Colonial Williamsburg by Cora Ginsburg.