Life

The third son of Robert Smirke

Robert Smirke (painter)

Robert Smirke , was an English painter and illustrator.-Life and work:Smirke was born at Wigton near Carlisle, the son of a clever but eccentric travelling artist. In his thirteenth year he was apprenticed in London with an heraldic painter, and, at the age of twenty, began to study at the schools...

, and brother of Sir Robert Smirke

Robert Smirke (architect)

Sir Robert Smirke was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture his best known building in that style is the British Museum, though he also designed using other architectural styles...

, and of Sydney Smirke

Sydney Smirke

Sydney Smirke, architect, was born in London, England, the younger brother of Sir Robert Smirke, also an architect. Their father, also Robert Smirke, had been a well-known 18th Century painter.Sydney Smirke's works include:...

, he was born at Marylebone

Marylebone

Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....

. He was educated privately and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (being twelfth wrangler) in 1816, and M.A. in 1820. In July 1815 he obtained the Chancellor's gold medal

Chancellor's Gold Medal

The Chancellor's Gold Medal is a prestigious annual award at Cambridge University for poetry, paralleling Oxford University's Newdigate prize. It was first presented by Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh during his time as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge...

 for an English poem on Wallace, which was printed in that year, and in Cambridge Prize Poems (1820, 1828, and 1859).

Smirke was called to the bar at the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

 on 12 Nov. 1824, went on the western circuit, and attended the Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 sessions. In December 1844 he was appointed solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

, and on the following 5 Feb. solicitor-general to him as Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall

Duke of Cornwall

The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in the peerage of England.The present Duke of Cornwall is The Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning British monarch .-History:...

. He succeeded to the post of attorney-general to the prince on 25 June 1852, and was ex officio member of his council. By letters patent under the great seal of England he was constituted on 2 July 1853 vice-warden of the stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, which post he held until 29 Sept. 1870. From 1846 to 1855 he was recorder of Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

. On his retirement in 1870 from active life he was knighted at Windsor.

As a student, Smirke had a predilection for the investigation and elucidation of charters, and for the history of mining in the duchy of Cornwall

Duchy of Cornwall

The Duchy of Cornwall is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne. If the monarch has no son, the...

. He was a member of the Royal Archæological Institute from its foundation, and took an active part at its annual meetings. From November 1861 to November 1863, and from that date in 1865 to November 1867, he presided over the Royal Institution of Cornwall

Royal Institution of Cornwall

The Royal Institution of Cornwall was founded in Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom, in 1818 as the Cornwall Literary and Philosophical Institution. The Institution was one of the earliest of seven similar societies established in England and Wales. The RIC moved to its present site in River Street...

. During the first of these periods, when the Cambrian Archæological Society paid a visit to Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

 in 1862 he presided over the congress. He died at 18 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, on 4 March 1875. He married at Kensington, on 11 Sept. 1838, Harriet Amelia, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Neill of Turnham Green. She died at Truro on 23 Feb. 1863.

Works

Apart from many papers read before the Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries of London

The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

 and the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Smirke was author of:

• Wallace, a poem, 1815.
• Report of Cases, 1670–1704, by R. Freeman, 2nd ed. 1826.
• Digest of the Law of Evidence on the Trial of Actions at Nisi Prius, by Henry Roscoe
  Henry Roscoe (legal writer)
  -Life:The youngest son of William Roscoe, he was born at Allerton Hall, near Liverpool, on 17 April 1800. He was educated by private tutors, and in 1817 was articled to Messrs. Stanistreet & Eden, solicitors, Liverpool. In January 1819 he moved to London and began studying for the bar, almost...
  
  . 5th ed., with considerable additions by C. Crompton and E. Smirke, 1839; subsequent editions down to the tenth in 1861 were ‘revised and enlarged’ by him.
• Case of Vice against Thomas, with an Appendix of Records and Documents on the early History of the Tin Mines in Cornwall, 1843.
• A Letter to Lord Campbell on the Rating of Railways, 1851.
• Procedure in the Court of the Vice-warden of the Stannaries, 1856; other volumes of rules and orders were published by him in 1862, 1863, and 1870.

Sources

Attribution