[2] Although legitimised under Scottish law by petition in 1918, the baronetcy and estates could not pass to the children of his father's second marriage.
[3][8] Upon the death of his father on 20 November 1883, he succeeded as the 12th Baronet Smith, of Hill Hall and was appointed High Sheriff of Essex in 1889.
[3] Sir William died, unmarried, on 22 July 1916 at Arundel House on Clarence Road in Tunbridge Wells.
[9] The baronetcy then reverted to his first cousin, Alfred John Bowyer-Smyth, eldest son of the Rev.
Alfred John Edward Bowyer-Smijth, younger son of his grandfather, who thus became the 13th Baronet who changed the spelling of the family surname to Bowyer-Smyth.