Leonard Smelt

Leonard Smelt ( – 30 May 1740) of Kirkby Fleetham, North Riding of Yorkshire, was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1709 and 1740.

Early life Smelt was the eldest son of Leonard Smelt of Kirkby Fleetham and his wife Grace Frankland, daughter of Sir William Frankland, 1st Baronet. He was admitted at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1700. His brother was William Smelt. He married Elizabeth Whitaker.

Career In 1709, in an unopposed by-election on 6 May for Thirsk, Smelt became the first person in his family to be an MP. This was thanks to an agreement between Ralph Bell and Smelt's mother's brother Thomas Frankland, the two main interests in the constituency, whereby Bell agreed to support Smelt in return for Frankland supporting Bell's nominee at the next election.

In 1710 Smelt succeeded his father to Kirkby Fleetham. In Parliament, he voted in favour of the impeachment of Henry Sacheverell. He stood down from Thirsk at the 1710 British general election as per the Frankland-Bell agreement but was returned for Northallerton at the 1713 British general election. He voted against the expulsion of Richard Steel.

Later life and legacy Smelt paid for Northallerton to have a public clock and like his father was a trustee of Kettlewell's charity, which provided the town's poor with education, clothes, medicine and Bibles.

Smelt died without issue on 30 May 1740. The manor of Kirkby Fleetham passed to the Aislabie family.