Smith, Miss

Submitted by edpope on

miss Smith 7.4.1796 at Saloman's concert / 13.11.1798 meet miss Smith / 28.3.1801 miss Smith calls / 10.6.1802 again / 22.6.1802 L Hobby & miss Smith dine / 1.10.1803 miss Linnee Smith / 27.3.1804 miss Smith calls / 15.8.1804 miss Smith, m(adam)e Volsey & Jas W(ollstonecraf)t at tea / 17.6.1805 miss Smith adv at tea / 18.7.1805 call on miss Smith with M(ary) J(ane) / 20.7.1805 Luzena Smith dines adv tante / 23.7.1805 Sadler's Wells w. miss Smith, Luzena, Hooley &c / 8.9.1805 miss Smith at Pitchford's in Norfolk / 19.9.1805 miss & W Smith at tea / 20.9.1805 miss Smith dines / 30.11.1806 C Smith calls / 2.3.1807 C Smith, L Smith & Newh(ou)se dine / 30.3.1807 call on miss Smith for M(ary) J(ane) adv mrs Dorset / 2.11.1808 miss Smith calls / 18.1.1810 L Smith dines / 20.8.1812 C M Smth dines / 11.8.1814 call on miss Smith / 27.8.1819 call on miss Smith (in Southend) / 18.7.1821 Hadleigh Castle & Leigh, w. Pilchers & miss Smith / 1.1.1822 miss Smith (Southend) dines / 31.12.1823 miss Smith, Southend at tea / 1.1.1824 miss Smith dines. qui pro quo / 25.12.1827 miss Smith calls / 27.12.1827 adv miss Smith (South End) at dinner / 31.12.1827 miss Smith (Southend) dines

Many of the above entries should probably be added to the person record for Charlotte Mary Smith (1769-1842) in the GD website. 30.3.1807 was clearly her as her aunt Mrs Dorset came by. Probable exceptions were the 1796 entry, (before Godwin had met her mother Charlotte Smith DNB 1749-1806, though see Smith, Charlotte for the possibility he met either mother or daughter in 1795) miss Linnee Smith 1803 and miss Smith 1805 in Norfolk (see below), and the last eight entries (1819 -1827) all connected with Southend. Probably her (or her sister Lucy Newhouse) was the first entry in 1805 where her niece Luzena Smith (1797-1883 dau of Charlotte Smith's son Nicholas and a Persian mother) appeared, and Charlotte Mary as "tante". Luzena was sent home to her grandmother in England in 1802 and her aunt Charlotte sometimes took care of her (see Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith p611n, p777-80). However some letters Godwin sent his wife in 1806 when she was staying at Charlotte Smith's (Bodleian Abinger c42 f21-25) mentioned a miss Smith who seems to have been a governess, tutor or nursemaid to the Godwin children. She didn't appear in the diary around that time, nor did Mr Burton mentioned in those letters as a teacher of the children. It seems unlikely that this was Charlotte Smith's daughter, but the miss Smith mentioned in the letters may have been the miss Smith of 23.7.1805 at Sadlers Wells, and some previous miss Smiths may have referred to her rather than Charlotte Mary. She may have been the Maria Smith referred to in The Journals of Mary Shelley 15.9.1814 and on 16.5.1815 as Miss Smith (see also the Journals of Claire Clairmont). The L Smith who dined 2.3.1807 with C Smith and Newhouse must have been the 10 year old Luzena with her two aunts (Lucy Newhouse having been a widow since 1801 and her oldest child was then 8), and the L Smith who dined 18.1.1810 could have been Luzena but her aunt had last appeared in the diary 31.1.1809 and next appeared on 31.3.1810. Charlotte Smith also had a son Lionel who was a Colonel in the army and visited his mother in March 1806 but then set sail directly for the West Indies (see Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith 725). A Miss Smith was also mentioned in Godwin's letter to his wife in Southend of 18.9.1818, where he wrote "I shall certainly be gratified - will this excite your jealousy? - to receive your Sunday narrative about, what you call my Saint Cecilia. I shall be sincerely glad to see Miss Smith at Christmas." Those two sentences may not have referred to the same person. No Miss Smith was noted in the diary around that Christmas but Godwin was probably referring to the Miss Smith who appeared later in the diary (1819 -27) in connection with Southend and with Mrs Godwin's sister Mrs Pilcher, who was also mentioned in that letter of 1818.

Two entries in my view wrongly coded to Charlotte Mary Smith were 6.10.1806 and 21.11.1806 (see Topping). For 1.10.1803 and 8.9.1805 see Smith, canon