Smyth Collection

These documents are mainly the records of the family of the Rev. John Gee Smyth 1759-1831, Rector of Chelsworth in Suffolk. Most are of his period and concern his own family and that of his brother, Major General George Stracey Smyth, Lieut, Governor of New Brunswick from 1817 to 1823. There are a few earlier Smyth documents, including copies of the marriage settlement of their parents & the will of their grandfather, the Rev. John Smyth of Chichester; a larger number relate to the family of their mother who was Sarah Gee, daughter of Edward Gee of the Six Clerks office, who married Ann Pratt, the daughter of Lord Chief Justice Sir John Pratt. There are also several documents relating to the family of Sarah Woodward Bowding, the first wife of the Rev. J.G. Smyth. The remainder include eight deeds of land in Chesham Buckinghamshire 1610-93, and various miscellanoues items among which is a handbook of the London and Birmingham Railway 1840.

Among the more interesting items in the collection are letters from the Duke of Kent 1808-20, whom the Rev. J.G. Smyth served as Domestic Chaplain; and those of Major General Smyth from New Brunswick. The latter contains information about schools, the installation of an organ in the church, the difficulties of transport when the rivers were frozen and other aspects of life in the colony. There are also 2 letters from Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, copies of 2 pamphlets on the Rotherhithe tunnel and a letter from Emma Brunel.

In this list, the correspondence with the Duke of Kent and the documents relating to Major General Smyth have been placed, for convenience, in separate sections from the main series of records of the Rev. J.G. Smyth & his family. All these three sections, however, are approximately contemporary and closely connected, sometimes containing references to the same events.