Murray Forbes Smith

Murray Forbes Smith (July 21, 1814 – May 4, 1875) was an American commission merchant best known as the father of Alva Belmont.

Early life Smith was born on July 21, 1814, in Dumfries, Virginia. He was a son of Edinburgh born George Smith (1765–1822) and Delia ( Forbes) Smith (1780–1841). who married in 1799. His sister, Anne Amelia Smith, was the second wife of James Innes Thornton, the Secretary of State of Alabama from 1824 to 1834. Two other sisters were Mary Virginia Smith, who married Dr. Philip Lightfoot (and lived at "Morven Plantation") and Sally Innes Smith, who married Col. George Bullock Willis (and lived at "Ben Lomond" in Greene County, Alabama).

His maternal grandfather was Dr. David Forbes,

Career The Murray Forbes Smith House at 201 Government Street in Mobile, Alabama. Smith began his career as a lawyer but soon went into the cotton business in Mobile, Alabama, upon the suggestion of his father-in-law. He became very successful and the family summered in Newport, Rhode Island, and went on European vacations. His wife and children lived near Paris, where his daughter Alva attended boarding school in Neuilly, France.

Personal life Smith married Pheobe Ann Desha (1821–1871), the elder daughter of U.S. Representative from Tennessee Robert Desha and Eleanor "Nellie" ( Shelby) Desha.

Desha Smith (1842–1888), who died in Geneva, Switzerland. Murray Forbes Smith (1844–1857), who died young. she was president of the Orphanage of the Church of the Holy Trinity of the City of New York. Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933), who married William Kissam Vanderbilt, a son of William Henry Vanderbilt and grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1875. They divorced in 1895 and she married Oliver Belmont, a son of August Belmont, in 1896. They remained married until his death in 1908. Mary Virginia Smith (1856–1926), who married banker Fernando Yznaga, brother of Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester, in 1880. They divorced in 1886, and she married William George Tiffany of Baltimore (a nephew of Mrs. August Belmont and first cousin of Charles Lewis Tiffany) in 1888 and moved to Maisons-Laffitte near Paris (before their eventual divorce in 1903). Julia Florence "Mimi" Smith (1860–1905), who married Gaston de Fontenilliat in 1887.

Smith died in New York City on May 4, 1875. The flag at the Cotton Exchange was displayed at half-mast following his death in his honor.

Descendants Through his daughter Alva, he was posthumously a grandfather of Consuelo Vanderbilt (first wife of Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough), William Kissam Vanderbilt II, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt. Through his daughter Alva, he is an ancestor of the 10th, 11th and 12th Dukes of Marlborough.