University of Virginia Library

GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH.

The familiar patronymic Smith has been most worthily represented
in Virginia from its settlement. The capital figure in the line, doughty
Captain John Smith, "the father of the Colony," however, returned a
bachelor to England. The next prominent representative of the name
in the annals of "ye Ancient Dominion," is Major Lawrence Smith,
who was designated by the Assembly, in 1674, as the "chiefe commander"
of a "ffort" to be built near the falls of Rappahannock River,
and to be garrisoned by "one hundred and eleven men out of Gloucester
County." This fort was built in 1676, and in April, 1679, Major
Lawrence Smith and Captain William Byrd were allowed to seat lands
at the head of Rappahannock and James Rivers. Major Larkin Smith
was a gallant officer of the Revolution, and the same name was meritoriously
represented in the war of 1812, and also in the recent great
internecine strife. John Augustine Smith, M. D., distinguished author
and president of William and Mary College, 1814-26, and subsequently,
for a lengthy period, lecturer on anatomy in the College of Physicians,
New York, was a native of Virginia, and a graduate of William and
Mary College in 1800. Governor William Smith, statesmen, and
Major-General of the Confederate States Army, of whom due notice
anon, should not be forgotten here. Major Lawrence Smith, as above,
it is thought due investigation will establish as the original ancestor in
Virginia of the subject of our sketch. His immediate progenitor was
Merewether Smith, born about the year 1730, at the family seat,
"Bathurst," in Essex County, Virginia, and whose Christian name is
indicative of descent from another worthy line. The mother of Merewether
Smith was a daughter of Launcelot Bathurst, a patentee of
nearly 8,000 acres of land in New Kent County, Virginia, in 1683,
and who is said to have been of the family of the Earl of Bathurst,
whose arms are: Sa. two bars ermine in chief, three crosses pattie or.
Crest, a dexter arm embowed; habited in mail, holding in the hand all
ppr. a spiked club or. Launcelot Bathurst was "learned in the law,"
and the records of Henrico evidence that he was appointed August 1,
1684, by Edmund Jenings, the Attorney-General for the Colony, his
deputy for the said county. The name Bathurst appears as a continuously
favored Christian name in the Stith, Buckner, Jones, Skelton,
Smith, Randolph, Hinton and other families. Merewether Smith married
twice: first, about 1760, Alice, daughter of Philip Lee, third in descent

THE CHAIR OF THE SPEAKER

of the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Va.

from the emigrant Richard Lee, and widow of Thomas Clarke;
and, secondly, September 29, 1769, Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel
William Dangerfield, of Essex County, member of the House of Burgesses
in 1758. Merewether Smith served Virginia with zeal and distinction
through a long series of years and in important stations. He
appears as a signer to the articles of the Westmoreland Association, of
February 27, 1766, which, in opposition to the odious Stamp Act, was
pledged to use no articles of British importation, and on May 18, 1769,
was a signer also of the resolutions of the Williamsburg Association,
which met at the old Raleigh Tavern, in that city, and who bound themselves
to abstain from the use of the proscribed British merchandise,
and to "promote and encourage industry and frugality, and discourage
all luxury and extravagance." In 1770 he represented Essex County
in the House of Burgesses. He was a member of the Conventions of
1775 and 1776, and family tradition affirms that in the latter body he
prepared the first drafts of both of the noble instruments, the Bill of
Rights and the Constitution, which were offered by George Mason. It
is stated that the late President John Tyler was in possession of documentary
evidence, derived from his father, Governor John Tyler, substantiating
the claim, but which Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Esq., the son of
the President, thinks was destroyed by a casualty during the late war.
The original drafts, it is said, were in the possession of the grandson of
Merewether Smith, the late John Adams Smith, cashier of the Farmers'
Bank, at Richmond, and having been deposited by him for safe keeping
in the vault of the bank, were destroyed in its burning, April 3, 1865,
incident upon the evacuation of Richmond. Merewether Smith was a
representative of Virginia in the Continental Congress, from 1778 to
1782. He represented Essex County in the House of Delegates, in
1786 and 1787, and in 1788 was a member of the Convention which ratified
the Federal Constitution. He died January 25, 1790; his wife,
Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, surviving him, died January 24, 1794. They
were both buried at "Bathurst." George William Smith, the issue of
the first marriage of his father, was born at "Bathurst" about 1762.
He married February 7, 1793, Sarah, fourth daughter of Colonel Richard
Adams, the elder, a member of the Convention of 1776, an ardent
patriot throughout the Revolution, and one of the most enterprising,
public spirited, wealthy and influential citizens of Richmond. Colonel
Adams was a large property holder, and the Assembly seriously considered
for a time the erection of the State capitol upon a site on Richmond
Hill owned by him and proffered as a gift to the State.

In 1794 George William Smith represented the county of Essex in
the House of Delegates. Soon thereafter he made Richmond his residence,
and in the practice of his profession of the law speedily took high
rank and enjoyed a lucrative practice. He represented the city in the
legislature from 1802 to 1808 inclusive, and in 1810 was appointed a
member of the State Council, and as senior member of that body, or

Lieutenant-Governor, upon the resignation of Governor James Monroe
to accept the position of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President
Madison, succeeded him, December 5, 1811, as the Executive of the
State. His term was lamentably brief, he being one of the victims of
the memorable calamity, the burning of the Richmond Theater, on Thursday
night, December 26th following. The winter had opened with unusual
gaiety in Richmond; brilliant assemblies followed each other in
quick succession; the theater was sustained by high histrionic talent;
the fascinations of the metropolis had drawn thither the young, the
beautiful, the gay, and the distinguished from every portion of the
state. On the lamentable occasion of the catastrophe the theater was
crowded. Six hundred persons, embracing many of the élite, the wealthy,
the honored, and the influential of the State, had assembled within the
frail wooden building. A new drama was to be presented for the benefit
of Henry Placide, a favorite actor; and it was to be followed by the
pantomime of "The Bleeding Nun," by Monk Lewis, founded on
the wild legend of that name. The regular piece had been played; the
pantomime had commenced; the curtain had risen upon its second act,
when sparks of fire were seen to fall from the scenery on the back part
of the stage, and supposed to have been communicated by one of the
chandeliers improperly raised. A moment after, Mr. Robertson, one
of the actors, ran forward, and waving his hand towards the ceiling,
called aloud, "The house is on fire!" His voice carried a thrill of
horror through the assembly. All rose and pressed wildly to the doors
of the building. The spectators in the pit escaped without difficulty;
the passage leading from it to the outer exit was broad, and had those
in the boxes descended by the pillars many would have been saved.
Some who were thrown down by violence were thus preserved. But
the crowd from the boxes pressed into the lobbies, and it was here, among
the refined and the lovely, that the scene became the most appalling.
The building was soon wrapped in flames; volumes of dense vapor penetrated
every part and produced suffocation; the fire leaping with awful
rapidity encircled with flame those nearest to it, and piercing shrieks rose
above the sound of the mass of frantic human beings struggling for life.
The weak were trampled under foot, and strong men in the desperation
of fear passed over the heads of all before them, in their way towards
the doors or windows of the theater. The windows even of the upper
lobby were sought; many who sprang from them perished by the fall;
many were seen with garments on fire as they descended, and died soon
afterwards from their injuries; few who were saved by this means
escaped entirely unhurt. But in the midst of terrors which roused the
selfishness of human nature to its utmost strength, there were displays
of love in death which invoke profound sensibility. Fathers were seen
rushing back into the flames to save their children, mothers were calling
in frenzied tones for their daughters, and were with difficulty dragged
from the building; husbands and wives and lovers refused to leave each
other, and met death together; even friends sacrificed their lives in endeavoring
to save those under their care. The fate of Lieutenant James
Gibbon, of the United States Navy, a son of the hero of the "forlorn
hope" at Stony Point, and his betrothed bride, the lovely Miss Conyers,
who died interlocked in the embrace of each other, was most touching.
Governor Smith had reached a place of safety without the burning
building, but returning to the rescue of his little son, John Adams,
already mentioned, and who had been separated from him by the
throng, he became a victim. Benjamin Botts, an eminent lawyer and
the father of the late statesman John Minor Botts, had gained the door,
but his wife was left behind. Hastily returning to save her, they both
perished. Seventy persons are known to have perished in this horrible
holocaust, but it was thought that the victims were much more numerous
from among the many strangers present. Richmond was shrouded
in mourning; hardly a family had escaped affliction from among its
members, connections, or friends. And the stroke was not felt alone
at home, but fell upon hearts far from the immediate scene of the catastrophe.
Indeed, the horror quite sped the globe, and the clergy of
varying creeds alike vented it as a thunderbolt of God's manifest
displeasure at such and like exhibitions and exemplifications of the
sinfulness of worldly and pleasure-loving flesh—to a whilom damning of
the noble drama. On the 30th of December, intelligence of the calamity
was communicated to the Senate of the United States, and a resolution
adopted that the Senators would wear crape on the left arm for
a month. A similar resolution was adopted in the House of Representatives,
having been introduced in a feeling address by the Hon. William
Dawson, of Virginia. The Monumental Church (Episcopal), a handsome
octagonal edifice, was erected in 1812 upon the site of the ill-fated
theater. The remains of the unfortunate victims are buried in the portico
of the church, beneath a marble monument inscribed with their
names. A son of the late John Adams and Lucy (Williams) Smith,
and grandson of Governor Smith, Bathurst L. Smith, Esq., is a prominent
merchant of Memphis, Tennessee.