William Smith (priest)
William Smith was a Scottish-born priest and educator who played a significant role in the early development of education and religious thought in colonial America. He was born to Thomas and Elizabeth Duncan Smith and attended the University of Aberdeen from 1743 to 1747, although he did not graduate. After serving as a schoolmaster in Scotland, Smith moved to New York in 1751, where he initially worked as a tutor. He became an influential advocate for education, publishing several works that highlighted the need for a college in New York and promoting vocational education, drawing the attention of notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin.
In addition to his educational contributions, Smith founded a magazine that was short-lived and became embroiled in political conflicts, which resulted in a libel conviction and subsequent imprisonment. His later years saw him actively involved in church leadership, including a tenure as the Bishop of Maryland, and he played a pivotal role in the establishment of Washington College. Despite challenges during the American Revolution, he maintained his commitment to education and was eventually reinstated at the College of Philadelphia before retiring as a wealthy landowner. Smith's legacy reflects the complexities of colonial American society, merging religious, educational, and political spheres.
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William Smith (priest)
Nonfiction Writer and Poet
- Born: April 27, 1727
- Birthplace: Aberdeen, Scotland
- Died: May 14, 1803
Biography
William Smith was born in Scotland to Thomas and Elizabeth Duncan Smith. From 1743 to 1747, he attended the University of Aberdeen, but left without a degree. From 1747 to 1751, he was a schoolmaster in rural Scotland. In 1751, his association with an Anglican missionary group, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, gave him the opportunity to emigrate to New York, where he first served as tutor to the children of a Long Island family.
In 1752, Smith anonymously published Some Thoughts on Education: With Reasons for Erecting a College in This Province, and Fixing the Same at the City of New York. . ., a contribution to the debate between the Dutch and the Anglican majority over founding a college in New York. In 1753, Smith published A General Idea of the College of Mirania: With a Sketch of the Method of Teaching Science and Religion, in Several Classes. . ., a scheme for the practical education of American youth that attracted the attention of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was impressed by Smith’s advocacy of vocational education, as opposed to the classical curriculum prevailing in most colonial institutions. He invited Smith to come to Philadelphia and serve as the provost of the newly founded Academy and College of Philadelphia.
As an educator, Smith acted as mentor to a group of students who called themselves the “Swains of the Schulkill” ; he also helped to launch the career of the gifted painter Benjamin West. In 1757, Smith founded the American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle of the British Colonies, which was published by William Bradford, but the magazine failed after a year. In 1757, he became embroiled in the battle between the Pennsylvania assembly, including Franklin, and his father-in-law, William Moore. Both men wanted to exclude German settlers from the assembly, and the assembly then tried to strip Moore of his judgeship. Smith was convicted of libel and spent January through April of 1758 in jail.
He conducted college business from his jail cell, and he decided to go to England to lay his case before the Penn family and other proprietary authorities. While in England, he received honorary degrees from Oxford and the University of Aberdeen. After his return to the United States, he collected many of his sermons on missionary activity and on the future importance of the American colonies in A Discourse Concerning the Conversion of the Heathen Americans, and the Final Propagation of Christianity and the Sciences to the Ends of the Earth. . . (1760).
He also invested substantially in western Pennsylvania, and in An Examination of the Connecticut Claim to Lands in Pennsylvania . . . (1774) attacked the claims of the Connecticut colony to the Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania. When the American Revolution came, he declared himself in favor of independence, but his sympathies with British culture made him suspect; in 1779 he lost his position at the College of Philadelphia. He obtained a parish in Maryland and for a decade served as president of the newly established Washington College in Chestertown. In 1783, he was elected Bishop of Maryland.
In 1789, he petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to return to his position at the College of Philadelphia; he served for two years, but was dismissed after the College merged with the University of Pennsylvania. Smith, a wealthy man because of his real-estate holdings, then retired from public life.