William Smith of Covent Garden

William "Gentleman" Smith was the son of a London grocer; he entered St. John's College Cambridge as a pensioner in 1747, but was rusticated. Migrating to London, he acted at Covent Garden for twenty-three years, married the sister of a peer, and lived to the age of nearly 90. He is said to have been a handsome man, mightily fond of fox-hunting.

TEXT RECORDS:

1760[Untitled. "Erst in Imperial robes did Albion sit."]

PUBLICATIONS:

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English

St. John's College Cambridge

actor
poet

Richard Cumberland
David Garrick
John Taylor Esq.

REFERENCE:

DNB; not NCBEL.

Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 89 (October 1819) 375-76; obituary in Monthly Magazine 49 (March 1820) 182-83; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for William Smith of Covent Garden:

1.	1761  Charles Churchill, in The Rosciad (1761); Poetical Works of Charles Churchill, ed. William Tooke (1804) 1:41.
2.	1773  Culex, "On Mr. Smith of Covent Garden Theatre" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (18 March 1773).
3.	1782  R. W., "Theatrical Acrostic Number X." Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (18 October 1782).
4.	1788  Francis Godolphin Waldron?; "Mr. Smith" Gentleman's Magazine 58 (September 1788) 769-70.
5.	1789  John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:39-40 &n.
6.	1804  William Tooke, Note to The Rosciad; Poetical Works of Charles Churchill (1804) 1:41n.
7.	1806  Richard Cumberland, in Memoirs (1806-07, 1856) 133.
8.	1817  John Taylor Esq., "To William Smith, Esq." The Sun (11 October 1817).
9.	1819  John Taylor Esq., "On William Smith, Esq. who lately died, in his 89th Year, at Bury St. Edmund's" The Sun (2 October 1819).
10.	1825 ca.  Joseph Cradock, 1825 ca.; Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs (1828) 4:270.
11.	1832  John Taylor Esq., in Records of my Life (1832) 2:59-71.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for William Smith of Covent Garden:

1.	1819  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 89 (October 1819) 375-76.
2.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 4:367-68.