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SMITH, Samuel II (1755-93), of Cherington, Glos. and Putney Hill, Surr.
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Biography Detail
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Family and Education
b. 19 Mar. 1755, 1st s. of Samuel Smith, merchant and banker, of Aldermanbury, London and Epsom, Surr. by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Watson of Lothbury, London. m. 28 Nov. 1777, Mary, da. and coh. of Thomas Lockyer† of Mapperton, Som., 1s. 3da. suc. fa.-in-law 1785; fa. 1789.
Offices Held
Dir. E.I. Co. 1783-6; treasurer, Levant Co. 1790-d.
Biography
Smith was nowhere sure of a seat in Parliament. He had first come in for Ilchester on his father-in-law’s interest, which he inherited in 1785, but he was unable to maintain it.1 In 1784, after toying with London, he had come in for Worcester, an expensive constituency where he was defeated in 1790. His brother-in-law Edward Phelips* wrote to Pitt, 17 July 1790, asking for a compensatory seat for him.2 In 1791 he contested Ludgershall against another London banker on the newly-acquired interest of Viscount Sydney and was successful, but a petition compromised his patron’s hold and he was not confirmed in his seat until 20 Mar. 1793.
In 1789 Smith became principal of the banking house of Samuel Smith of Aldermanbury, founded by his father. He was a cousin of the banking dynasty formed by the brothers Robert Smith*, Samuel Smith I*, George Smith* and John Smith II*. A few months before he died he became a partner in the newly established London and Middlesex bank. He was also a Turkey merchant, acting as treasurer of the Levant Company for the last three years of his life.3 Until 1786, when he resigned in protest at the growing power of the Board of Control, he was an East India Company director and Indian affairs had been his chief topic in the House. On 13 May 1793 he once more ‘entered considerably at large into the affairs of the East India Company’. In other respects he was a supporter of Pitt’s administration. Smith died 15 June 1793.
