Born into a well-to-do family from Audley, Staffordshire, Smith Child entered the Royal Navy in 1747 through a connection between his father (also named Smith Child) and First Lord of the Admiralty George Anson.

[1] In 1763 he established a pottery-manufactory in Tunstall, Staffordshire,[2] and married Margaret Roylance of Newfield the following year, acquiring a significant estate from her family.

He was in command of HMS Europe as part of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot's fleet in the March 1781 Battle of Cape Henry, in which the British fought off a French fleet attempting to enter Chesapeake Bay, and again later that year in the critical Battle of the Chesapeake in early September, in which the British lost control of the bay, enabling the decisive Franco-American victory at Yorktown.

[1][3] In November 1795 he was given command of HMS Commerce de Marseille, a French ship that had captured by the Royal Navy in the 1793 Siege of Toulon.

In somewhat poor condition, she was further damaged in a storm not long after sailing, and Child was forced to return to Portsmouth.