Nathaniel Smith (1730 – 6 May 1794) was a

Bombay Marine The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. Fr ...

officer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the Pa ...

between 1783 and 1794. Smith was the posthumous son of naval captain Nathaniel Smith of

St Giles-without-Cripplegate St Giles-without-Cripplegate is an Church of England, Anglican church in the City of London, located on Fore Street (London), Fore Street within the modern Barbican Estate, Barbican complex. When built it stood without (that is, outside) the Lond ...

and his wife Anne Gould, daughter of James Gould. Smith joined the Bombay Marine of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

(EIC) and was appointed captain of the

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

''Clinton'' in 1759. In 1765 he transferred to ''Lord Camden''. After six voyages to India he retired in 1771 with a small fortune. He stood for parliament unsuccessfully at Rochester in 1772 and in 1780.J. Brooke, Lewis Namier ''The House of Commons 1754-1790, Volume 3''
/ref> Smith wrote three pamphlets on

Company rule in India Company rule in India (also known as the Company Raj, from Hindi , ) refers to regions of the Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established its first trading post in India ...

and two on the EIC's shipping problems. He became a director of the company in 1774. In February 1783, Smith was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...

until he was unseated on petition in April 1783. However he vigorously opposed Fox's East India Bill and was consequently elected chairman of the EIC in November 1783. In 1784 Smith was elected MP for Rochester and held the seat until 1790. He offered guarded support for

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...

in the debate on his impeachment in 1787. He regained the seat in a by-election in 1792 and held it until his death aged 63 in 1794. Smith married Hester Dance, daughter of George Dance on 4 December 1784. He provided support for his wife's nephew

Nathaniel Dance Commodore Sir Nathaniel Dance (20 June 1748 – 25 March 1827) was a British sea captain who served for over four decades in the East India Company (EIC), making numerous voyages to India and back with the fleets of EIC East Indiamen. He was ...

in his dealings with the East India Company.Exploring Surrey's past
/ref>

References

1794 deaths 1730 births Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 Directors of the British East India Company Bombay Marine officers {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub