SMITH, Thomas (d.1716).

At George I’s accession, Thomas Smith, a Glasgow merchant, who had been returned as a Whig for Glasgow in 1710, conveyed a message of loyalty from the Glasgow magistrates to the King through the Duke of Montrose. He also presented plaids from the Glasgow town council to the Princess of Wales: ‘I had the honour to kiss her hand, and when I was going out of her closet she said ‘Pray, Mr. Smith, forget not to return my hearty thanks to the magistrates of Glasgow for their fine present’.Extracts from Glasgow Burgh Recs. iv. 542. Re-elected in 1715, he died 19 Jan. 1716, described by the Speaker, Spencer Compton, as an honest and useful Member of the House of Commons.SRO, Clerk of Penicuik mss, box 120/3171. His widow petitioned the Glasgow town council on behalf of herself and her son, left in financial straits because, though her husband’s expenses in London had been paid by the city, he did, by excessive ‘care and application’ to his parliamentary duties ‘in a manner ... sequestrate himself to public business’, to the detriment of his own affairs. On 14 Sept. 1716 the council voted two thousand marks (about £115) to help to bring up young Thomas, then aged seven.Glasgow Recs. iv. 582, 597-8 and n.