Thomas Smith. BISHOP OF CARLISLE, CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO KING CHARLES THE SECOND, &c. 1614-1702. "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch."-PROV. HE family of Smith (as Byron somewhere tells us) is very prolific and numerous in England; (whereof the gallant Sir Harry, of Aliwal renown, is, perhaps, the spem gregis or hope of the flock just now), yet we doubt whether the great family of man can boast of a more generous, of a noblerhearted, of a more liberal-minded soul than Thomas Smith, Bishop of Carlisle. Within his diocese what village has not some substantial mark of his munificence? The school and college in which he was educated remember him in their prayers, as among their greatest benefactors. The public edifices, to which he was officially attached, retain the most lasting memorials of his taste and nobility of soul. These were the distinctive features of his character, but not all. He raised himself from the middling ranks of life to the supreme honours of the Church; and he did so as an honest man. He was first cousin in blood to Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, but in soul they were as the Poles asunder : "Unpractis'd he to fawn, or seek for pow'r, He was born at Whitewall, in the parish of Asby, on the 21st of December, 1614. He was also educated at Appleby School, and in the sixteenth year of his age was admitted into Queen's College, Oxford. His early proficiency in his studies quickly gained him a singular repute in the University; one instance whereof was remarkable in the performance of his Lent exercise; for, at that time, and for several years after, the fond humour of one college's engaging another in brawling disputations, which they called coursing, being fashionable in the University, his questions were, unknown to himself, sent by Mr. Thomas Crosfield, senior Fellow of his College, to the young students of Brasen-nose, with the following challenge, subscribed: Prodeat aliquis è vobis Eneus qui Fabrum hunc Reginensem ad angustias (si possit) redigat. Though this procured him a surprising assault from the gentlemen, who looked upon themselves as provoked, and obliged in honour to enter the lists; yet he so prudently managed the matter, that the engagement ended much more amicably than was expected, and indeed than had been usual upon such occasions. After he had taken the degree of M.A. and was, before several of his seniors, preferred to a Fellowship, he became an eminent tutor, most of the gentlemen of the college being committed to his care. He was (continues Wood, from whom this is mainly taken) doubly qualified beyond any of his contemporaries for such a charge; as having had the opportunity of travelling for some time in France, and also being particularly skilled in a methodical and easy way of grounding young men in the principles of philosophy; insomuch that some systems of his composure were long after used by the best tutors in that college. The loose way at that time of slabbering over the public exercises for degrees" offending him, as it did everybody else that understood and valued the honour of the University; he chiefly complained of the empty formality of examinations, and so far prevailed for a redress, that himself was the first man who examined publicly in the Physic School, after the method in part still observed. When King Charles the First resided at Oxford, he was one of those who were appointed to preach before his Majesty, at Christ Church, and the Parliament, at St. Mary's. When afterwards faction, and the fanatical and furious zeal of a new set of visitors had rendered Oxford as uneasy to persons of loyalty and generosity, as before it had been acceptable, he withdrew into the North, where he married Catherine, widow of Sir Henry Fletcher, of Hutton, in Cumberland: and lived there in a quiet privacy, till, upon the happy restoration of King Charles the Second, his Majesty's pleasure was intimated to the University that there should be a creation of all Faculties of such as had suffered for his cause. Whereupon, on the 2nd of August, 1660, he was with many more of his fellowsufferers created D.D., and on the 11th of December following diplomated Doctor in the same faculty. The King was also pleased to make him a sharer, with others, of his royal bounty, in the disposal of vacant benefices and dignities in the church, and to honor him with being one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. A prebend in the church of Carlisle was what he had first given him, into which he was installed the 14th of November, 1660. At the same time he had the offer of a good living in the King's disposal, the distance whereof not suiting with his other circumstances, he declined it himself, but procured it for his friend. Within a few months after this, he was Nor collated by Bishop Cosins to a good prebend in the church of Durham, where, looking upon himself as invested with a preferment, as agreeable as his modesty would give him leave to wish for, he began immediately to repair his prebend house, sparing no costs to make it a dwelling suitable to the honor and endowments of that cathedral. were his benefactions confined to what justly claimed his first care-the seat of his preferment; he gratefully remembered the first foundations of his growing honors were laid at the school of Appleby, and therefore very bountifully expended several large sums in raising the schoolmaster's salary considerably beyond that of any other in the diocese of Carlisle, and in building a dwellinghouse adjoining to the school. Upon the promotion of Dr. Carleton to the Bishoprick of Bristol*, he had the Deanery of Carlisle conferred upon him, into which he was installed on the 14th of March, 1671. And now he had opportunities enough to show his public spirit. He was indeed from that day a continual benefactor to that cathedral, as will be at once apparent from the following account of his expenditure: Building the Deanery at Carlisle £. 600 Organ at Carlisle £.220, Communion Plate £.100 320 * See Life of Bernard Gilpin, "The Northern Apostle." 50 |