Benjamin Smith (British Whig Politician)
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Benjamin Leigh Smith (1783 – 12 April, 1860) was a British Whig politician who represented the
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of
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and
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
. Smith was one of five sons and five daughters of
William Smith William, Willie, Will, Bill, or Billy Smith may refer to: Academics * William Smith (Master of Clare College, Cambridge) (1556–1615), English academic * William Smith (antiquary) (c. 1653–1735), English antiquary and historian of University C ...
, the famous MP and abolitionist. Of his sisters, Frances (Fanny) Smith, married into the Nightingale family and produced a daughter,
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...
, a nurse and statistician; another married into the
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. William Smith wanted his son Benjamin to marry Mary Shore, the sister of
William Nightingale William Edward Nightingale ( Shore; 15 February 1794 – 5 January 1874) was a noted English Unitarian and the father of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Biography William Nightingale (known also as W.E.N.) was born William ...
, now a relative by marriage (she later married Benjamin's brother Samuel). His home was in
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, London, but in 1816 he inherited and purchased property near
Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
: Brown's Farm near
Robertsbridge Robertsbridge is a village in the civil parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge, and the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Hastings and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Royal Tunbridg ...
, with a house built around 1700 (extant), and Crowham Manor, Westfield, which included . Although a member of the
landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...
, Smith held radical views. He was a
Dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin , 'to disagree') is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Dissent may include political opposition to decrees, ideas or doctrines and it may include opposition to those things or the fiat of ...
, a Unitarian, a supporter of
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, and a benefactor to the poor. In 1826, he bore the cost of building a school for the inner-city poor at
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,
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, and paid a penny a week towards the fees for each child, the same amount as paid by their parents. On a visit to a sister in Derbyshire in 1826, Benjamin met Anne Longden. She became pregnant by him and he took her to a rented lodge at
Whatlington Whatlington is a village and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is north of Hastings, just off the A21 road (England), A21 road. The village is in two parts, one in the valley on the road ...
, a small village near
Battle, East Sussex Battle is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Districts of England, district of Rother District, Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south-east of London, east of Brighton and east of Lewes. Hastings is to the south- ...
. There she lived as "Mrs Leigh", the surname of his relations on the nearby
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
. The birth of their first child, Barbara (the future founder of
Girton College Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the univ ...
as Barbara Bodichon), created a scandal because the couple did not marry;
illegitimacy Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
carried a heavy social stigma at the time. He rode from Brown's Farm to visit them daily, and within eight weeks Anne was pregnant again. When their son
Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...
was born, the four of them went to America for two years, during which time another child was conceived. After their return to Sussex, they lived openly together at Brown's Farm and had two more children. After their last child was born in 1833, Anne became ill with tuberculosis and Smith leased 9 Pelham Crescent, which faced the sea at Hastings; the healthy properties of
sea air Sea air has traditionally been thought to offer health benefits associated with its unique odor, which is caused by dimethyl sulfide, released by microbes. Salts generally do not dissolve in air, but can be carried by sea spray in the form of par ...
were highly regarded at the time. A local woman, Hannah Walker, was employed to look after the children. Anne did not recover, so Smith took her to
Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 24,096 according to the 2021 Census. Its growth as a seaside resort came after the villages of Upper Ryde and ...
, Isle of Wight, where she died in 1834. He died on 12 April, 1860, at 5 Blandford Square in Marylebone."Deaths". ''London Daily News,'' Saturday 14 April 1860, p.8 - via
British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London ...
. Retrieved 09 April 2021.


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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Benjamin Leigh 1783 births 1860 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies People from Robertsbridge