Samuel Smith (Dean of Christ Church)

For his father, the Headmaster of Westminster School, see Samuel Smith (schoolmaster).

Samuel Smith (20 September 1765, Westminster – 19 January 1841, Oxford) was an English clergyman and academic administrator at the University of Oxford.

Life

The eldest son of Samuel Smith (Headmaster of Westminster School 1764–1788) and his first wife Anna Jackson, Smith was born on 20 September 1765 and baptised in Westminster Abbey on 15 October.

Smith was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on 30 May 1782, aged 16, and graduating B.A. 1786, M.A. 1789, B.D. 1797, D.D. 1808.

Smith was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1790. He held livings at Daventry (1795) and Dry Drayton (1808), prebendaries at Southwell Minster (1800) and York Minster (1801), and became Chaplain to the House of Commons (1802).

At Christ Church, Oxford, Smith was a tutor and Censor (1794), Canon (1807–1824), Sub-Dean (1809), Treasurer (1813), and Dean of Christ Church (1824–1831).

Fergus Butler-Gallie rates Smith as "one of the least successful figures in the history of British academia": his blunders included rusticating student Lord Charles Wellesley, incurring the fury of Wellesley's father the Duke of Wellington; stating that he had hit a fellow rower over the head to prevent him from capsizing a leaking boat; and failing to control the canons, fellows and students, whose disputes regarding Sir Robert Peel's bill for Catholic emancipation descended into violence and vandalism. Smith backed Peel; the anti-Peel faction in response studded the message "No Peel" into a door below the college's Great Hall.

Smith resigned as Dean in 1831, accepting a prebendary at Durham Cathedral.

A daughter married the Rev. Richard Harington, DD, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford.

References

^ "Smith, Samuel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37983. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
"Samuel Smith". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Smith, Samuel (4)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
CCEd 17379
Butler-Gallie, Fergus (2018). A Field Guide to the English Clergy. London: Oneworld Publications. p. 41. ISBN 9781786074416.

Preceded byCharles Henry Hall

Dean of Christ Church, Oxford
1824–1831

Succeeded byThomas Gaisford

Portals:

v t e Dean of Christ Church, Oxford
Predecessors	John Hygdon* John Oliver* John London Richard Cox
Early modern	Richard Cox Richard Marshall George Carew Thomas Sampson Thomas Godwin Thomas Cooper John Piers Tobias Matthew William James Thomas Ravis John King William Goodwin Richard Corbet Brian Duppa Samuel Fell Edward Reynolds John Owen Edward Reynolds George Morley John Fell John Massey Henry Aldrich Francis Atterbury George Smalridge Hugh Boulter William Bradshaw John Conybeare David Gregory William Markham Lewis Bagot Cyril Jackson
Late modern	Charles Henry Hall Samuel Smith Thomas Gaisford Henry Liddell Francis Paget Thomas Strong Henry Julian White Alwyn Williams John Lowe Cuthbert Simpson Henry Chadwick Eric Heaton John Drury Christopher Lewis Martyn Percy Sarah Foot
* – Academic deans only; prior to the establishment of Christ Church Cathedral; ** – Cathedral deans at Osney.

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