Erasmus Smith
Encyclopedia
Erasmus Smith was an English merchant, landowner and philanthropist
in the field of education who lived during a period of political and religious turbulence.
Smith was born to a family who owned manor
s in Leicestershire
and held Protestant beliefs. He grew up to become a merchant, a supplier of foodstuffs to the armies of the Puritan
Oliver Cromwell
- especially during Cromwell's suppression of rebellion in Ireland - and an alderman
of the City of London
. He was a beneficiary of legislation designed to provide finance for those military campaigns of the 1640s and 1650s, from which he gained extensive landholdings in Ireland both as a return for monies given in support and by speculation in the land options promised to others who had given such support.
In due course, and even with the replacement of Cromwell by the rule of Charles II
, Smith manoeuvred in order to protect his land gains and also to further his general religious sympathies. He achieved this in part by creating an eponymous Trust
whereby some of his Irish property was used for the purpose of financing the education of children and provided scholarship
s for the most promising of those to continue their studies at Trinity College, Dublin
.
, Leicestershire, having been born in that year. He was the second son of Roger Smith and his second wife, Anna (née Goodman). Henry "Silver-tongued" Smith
, the Puritan
preacher, was an uncle. The family had changed their name to Smith from Heriz (or Harris) when they inherited the manor of Edmondthorpe
during the reign of Henry VII
, and it was Erasmus's grandfather, also called Erasmus, who had bought the manor of Husbands Bosworth in 1565.
By 1631 Roger Smith was an alderman of the City of London and in 1635 he was knighted. Erasmus followed his father to the City, served a seven year apprenticeship
with a poultry merchant, John Saunders, and was made a freeman
of the Grocers' Company on 10 February 1635. In 1657, he was elected an alderman, as his father had been before him, but preferred to pay a fine of £420 in order to be released from the duties of office. In these early years he was also unwilling to have much involvement in the business of the Grocers' Company, although this changed later in life and the cause of his initial reluctance may have been his preference to concentrate on acquiring his wealth. According to the records of the Aldermen of the City of London, Erasmus was Member of Parliament
for Ardee
in County Louth
between 1665 and 1666.
of 1641, whereby money loaned to the government of Charles I
for the purpose of suppressing the Irish rebellion was secured by lands confiscated in that country. The lands had been confiscated in law but it would require the overthrow of the rebels in order to crystallise those property assets. The subsequent Doubling Ordinance of 1643 allowed those who had subscribed to receive twice the amount of land if they added a further 25% of their initial financial aid: Roger Smith accepted those terms, contributing a further £75 in July 1643 and then two more payments of £75 in August and in October of that year.
Erasmus Smith had become a "Turkey merchant". He was a Protestant and, like his father, by 1650 he was supplying foodstuffs to Oliver Cromwell's armies in the civil wars of that time. This applied in particular to military activities in Ireland, where the rebellion of 1641
was believed by him and others to have resulted in part from a failure of education in that country.
W. J. R. Wallace, in his history of Smith and the eponymous Trust, notes that the first record of Erasmus being in Ireland is from 1648 and that
By the time that the rebellion was finally suppressed
in 1653, and just prior to the first assignments of land under the terms of the enabling Settlement of Ireland Act, 1652
, Roger had registered the transfer of his investment to Erasmus. His son had speculated by buying out the interests of other subscribers, who had tired of the delay in seeing a reward from their investment; and he was also entitled to further land grants in payment for his supplies to the army. What began as a grant of 666 acres (269.5 ha) eventually became - by the 1680s, after various wranglings and adjustments - over 46000 acres (18,615.6 ha) situated in nine counties, and Erasmus had an estimated worth of £120,000.
(in the style of the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines) were compulsory. Those pupils who showed particular promise were to have the opportunity of taking up scholarships at Trinity College, Dublin.
His plans for the Trust were, however, overtaken by events. Cromwell died in 1658 and Smith's arrangements would not be entirely acceptable to the new regime. The Restoration period, which began around 1660 and saw Charles II become king, was not sympathetic to the Puritan
beliefs of the Cromwellian Interregnum. Nonetheless, Smith's venture was able to survive the political upheaval and change in moral tone, albeit in modified form. That it did so was largely due to his wealth and connections, but also because the educational purpose for which his lands were being used was clearly beneficial and because he engaged in many lawsuits in order to protect both his own interests and those of family and friends. Referred to by his enemies as "pious Erasmus with the golden purse", Smith came to an arrangement in 1667 which reduced the number of schools to three and required that he give £100 annually to a favourite institute of Charles, Christ's Hospital
. The terms stipulated that although the schools were to be for the free education of children of Smith's tenants, they should each provide education on similar terms to a further 20 children from poor families, and that additional children could be schooled at a charge not to exceed two shillings.
thumb
Wallace argues that Smith
A Royal Charter
was granted to the trust in 1669. This stipulated the Trust's name to be The Governors of the Schools Founded by Erasmus Smith, Esq. and provided for a seal bearing the words "We are faithful to our Trust". By 1675 the new board of 32 trustees had around £600 per annum available to them from the landholdings; by the first quarter of the eighteenth century this had risen to £1100. Free schools were established in Tipperary
, Galway
and Drogheda
. Funding was also given to another school, in Dublin: the recently founded King's Hospital School benefited from the trust's interest by being provided with twenty scholarships at Trinity College and also apprenticeships. The trust also funded a lectureship in Hebrew at the College, and arrangements were in place to that any surplus funds generated were used for purposes such as clothing the poor children in the grammar schools and arranging apprenticeships.
The schools were not as successful as Smith had hoped they would be, or at least certainly not so during his lifetime. He and others attributed this to the resentment shown by Catholics, and there was also resentment from those charged with sending Irish rent money to England's Christ's Hospital.
, where he had lived at St John's Court for many years.
In 1683 he bought the manor of Hamerton
, Huntingdonshire
, where he was buried upon his death some time between August and October 1691. (Mary predeceased him). He had also bought Weald Hall in 1685.
Hugh Smith, the surviving child of Erasmus's six sons and three daughters, inherited Hamerton and appointed his two daughters as co-heirs. One of those daughters, Lucy, married into the Stanley family. Her husband changed his surname to become James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange, and the couple were the parents of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby
.
The Erasmus Smith Trust continues to operate today.
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
in the field of education who lived during a period of political and religious turbulence.
Smith was born to a family who owned manor
Manor
-Land tenure:*Manor, an estate in land of the mediaeval era in England*Manorialism, a system of land tenure and organization of the rural economy and society in parts of medieval Europe based on the manor*Manor house, the principal house of a manor...
s in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
and held Protestant beliefs. He grew up to become a merchant, a supplier of foodstuffs to the armies of the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
- especially during Cromwell's suppression of rebellion in Ireland - and an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. He was a beneficiary of legislation designed to provide finance for those military campaigns of the 1640s and 1650s, from which he gained extensive landholdings in Ireland both as a return for monies given in support and by speculation in the land options promised to others who had given such support.
In due course, and even with the replacement of Cromwell by the rule of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, Smith manoeuvred in order to protect his land gains and also to further his general religious sympathies. He achieved this in part by creating an eponymous Trust
Trust law
In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another...
whereby some of his Irish property was used for the purpose of financing the education of children and provided scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s for the most promising of those to continue their studies at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
.
Background
Erasmus Smith was baptised on 8 April 1611 at Husbands BosworthHusbands Bosworth
Husbands Bosworth is a large crossroads village in South Leicestershire on the A5199 road from Leicester city to Northampton and the A4304 road from Junction 20 of the M1 motorway to Market Harborough....
, Leicestershire, having been born in that year. He was the second son of Roger Smith and his second wife, Anna (née Goodman). Henry "Silver-tongued" Smith
Henry Smith (preacher)
Henry Smith was an English clergyman, widely regarded as "the most popular Puritan preacher of Elizabethan London." His sermons at St. Clement Danes drew enormous crowds, and earned him a reputation as "Silver Tongued" Smith...
, the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
preacher, was an uncle. The family had changed their name to Smith from Heriz (or Harris) when they inherited the manor of Edmondthorpe
Edmondthorpe
Edmondthorpe is a small village in Leicestershire, close to the border with Rutland. It has Danish origins.The name Edmondthorpe is derived from a corrupted form of the Old English personal name 'Eadmer', in old records spelled variously, Edmersthorp ; Thorp Edmer; Thorp Emeri; Thorp Edmeer;...
during the reign of Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, and it was Erasmus's grandfather, also called Erasmus, who had bought the manor of Husbands Bosworth in 1565.
By 1631 Roger Smith was an alderman of the City of London and in 1635 he was knighted. Erasmus followed his father to the City, served a seven year apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
with a poultry merchant, John Saunders, and was made a freeman
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of the Grocers' Company on 10 February 1635. In 1657, he was elected an alderman, as his father had been before him, but preferred to pay a fine of £420 in order to be released from the duties of office. In these early years he was also unwilling to have much involvement in the business of the Grocers' Company, although this changed later in life and the cause of his initial reluctance may have been his preference to concentrate on acquiring his wealth. According to the records of the Aldermen of the City of London, Erasmus was Member of Parliament
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords...
for Ardee
Ardee (Parliament of Ireland constituency)
Ardee was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1378 to 1801.-History:Ardee in County Louth was enfranchised as a borough constituency in 1378...
in County Louth
County Louth
County Louth is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county...
between 1665 and 1666.
Acquisition of lands in Ireland
In July 1642 Roger Smith subscribed £225 under the terms of the Adventurers ActAdventurers Act
The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland".-The main Act:...
of 1641, whereby money loaned to the government of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
for the purpose of suppressing the Irish rebellion was secured by lands confiscated in that country. The lands had been confiscated in law but it would require the overthrow of the rebels in order to crystallise those property assets. The subsequent Doubling Ordinance of 1643 allowed those who had subscribed to receive twice the amount of land if they added a further 25% of their initial financial aid: Roger Smith accepted those terms, contributing a further £75 in July 1643 and then two more payments of £75 in August and in October of that year.
Erasmus Smith had become a "Turkey merchant". He was a Protestant and, like his father, by 1650 he was supplying foodstuffs to Oliver Cromwell's armies in the civil wars of that time. This applied in particular to military activities in Ireland, where the rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
was believed by him and others to have resulted in part from a failure of education in that country.
W. J. R. Wallace, in his history of Smith and the eponymous Trust, notes that the first record of Erasmus being in Ireland is from 1648 and that
By the time that the rebellion was finally suppressed
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
in 1653, and just prior to the first assignments of land under the terms of the enabling Settlement of Ireland Act, 1652
Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland imposed penalties including death and land confiscation against participants and bystanders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and subsequent unrest.-Background:...
, Roger had registered the transfer of his investment to Erasmus. His son had speculated by buying out the interests of other subscribers, who had tired of the delay in seeing a reward from their investment; and he was also entitled to further land grants in payment for his supplies to the army. What began as a grant of 666 acres (269.5 ha) eventually became - by the 1680s, after various wranglings and adjustments - over 46000 acres (18,615.6 ha) situated in nine counties, and Erasmus had an estimated worth of £120,000.
Philanthropy in education
Smith had no desire to live in Ireland. In 1655 – the year that his father died – Smith proposed that some of the profits from his Irish lands should be used to support five Protestant schools for boys. A Trust was established for this purpose in 1657, in relation to which Smith and the Grocers' Company had various powers of oversight and for which eighteen trustees were appointed. The Trust initially encompassed 3381 acres (1,368.2 ha) of his land. In keeping with his religious views, the schools were to teach their pupils "fear of God and good literature and to speak the English tongue.", and both prayers and catechismCatechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
(in the style of the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines) were compulsory. Those pupils who showed particular promise were to have the opportunity of taking up scholarships at Trinity College, Dublin.
His plans for the Trust were, however, overtaken by events. Cromwell died in 1658 and Smith's arrangements would not be entirely acceptable to the new regime. The Restoration period, which began around 1660 and saw Charles II become king, was not sympathetic to the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
beliefs of the Cromwellian Interregnum. Nonetheless, Smith's venture was able to survive the political upheaval and change in moral tone, albeit in modified form. That it did so was largely due to his wealth and connections, but also because the educational purpose for which his lands were being used was clearly beneficial and because he engaged in many lawsuits in order to protect both his own interests and those of family and friends. Referred to by his enemies as "pious Erasmus with the golden purse", Smith came to an arrangement in 1667 which reduced the number of schools to three and required that he give £100 annually to a favourite institute of Charles, Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...
. The terms stipulated that although the schools were to be for the free education of children of Smith's tenants, they should each provide education on similar terms to a further 20 children from poor families, and that additional children could be schooled at a charge not to exceed two shillings.
thumb
Wallace argues that Smith
A Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
was granted to the trust in 1669. This stipulated the Trust's name to be The Governors of the Schools Founded by Erasmus Smith, Esq. and provided for a seal bearing the words "We are faithful to our Trust". By 1675 the new board of 32 trustees had around £600 per annum available to them from the landholdings; by the first quarter of the eighteenth century this had risen to £1100. Free schools were established in Tipperary
Tipperary
Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....
, Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
and Drogheda
Drogheda
Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....
. Funding was also given to another school, in Dublin: the recently founded King's Hospital School benefited from the trust's interest by being provided with twenty scholarships at Trinity College and also apprenticeships. The trust also funded a lectureship in Hebrew at the College, and arrangements were in place to that any surplus funds generated were used for purposes such as clothing the poor children in the grammar schools and arranging apprenticeships.
The schools were not as successful as Smith had hoped they would be, or at least certainly not so during his lifetime. He and others attributed this to the resentment shown by Catholics, and there was also resentment from those charged with sending Irish rent money to England's Christ's Hospital.
Death and legacy
Smith had married Mary, the 20 year old daughter of Hugh Hare, the 1st Baron Coleraine, in 1670 when he was 59. The couple had nine children, five of whom were baptised in ClerkenwellClerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
, where he had lived at St John's Court for many years.
In 1683 he bought the manor of Hamerton
Hamerton
Hamerton – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Winwick west of Huntingdon.Hamerton Zoo is on the north side of the village....
, Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
, where he was buried upon his death some time between August and October 1691. (Mary predeceased him). He had also bought Weald Hall in 1685.
Hugh Smith, the surviving child of Erasmus's six sons and three daughters, inherited Hamerton and appointed his two daughters as co-heirs. One of those daughters, Lucy, married into the Stanley family. Her husband changed his surname to become James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange, and the couple were the parents of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby PC , styled Lord Strange between 1771 and 1776, was a British peer and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
.
The Erasmus Smith Trust continues to operate today.
Recognition
Four professorships at Trinity College are named after him:- Erasmus Smith's Chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (established 1724)
- Erasmus Smith's Chair of Hebrew (1724)
- Erasmus Smith's Chair of Modern History (1762)
- Erasmus Smith's Chair of Mathematics (1762)