William Smith

William Smith (8 October 1697 – 22 November 1769) was an American lawyer and jurist.

Life Smith was born on 8 October 1697 in Newport Pagnell in England. He was the eldest of five sons born to Thomas Smith (1675–1745) and Susanna (née Odell) Smith (1675–1729).

In 1715, he emigrated with his family to New York where his father became one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church on Wall Street, inviting Jonathan Edwards to serve as minister. Once in America, Smith studied religion, law and the classics at Yale College, graduating in 1719.

Career After his graduation from Yale, he worked as a tutor there before being offered the presidency when he was 27 years old. Smith declined the offer, in order to begin a law practice in New York City.

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1744.

Smith was also known as part of the legal team that was victorious on behalf of the printer and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger.

Personal life

In 1727, Smith was married to Mary Het (1710–1754), a daughter of René Het and Blanche Dubois, French Huguenots who fled France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Together, William and Mary were the parents of fourteen children, including: a granddaughter of Robert Livingston the Younger. Sarah Smith (1732–1815), who in 1755 married Abraham Keteltas, a minister elected to the Provincial Congress.