SMITH. JAMES SMITH, of York county, in Pennsylvania, was perhaps the most eccentric in character among all those illustrious men that had the happiness to affix their names to the glorious Declaration of Independence. Ireland may claim the honour of being his native land; and he retained to the latest hours of a protracted life, that openness of heart and raciness of humour, for which Irishmen are often remarkable, united with the regular industry and steady virtues that were improved if not implanted by his American education. The date of his birth has not been ascertained; it was a secret which he carried with him to the grave, an invincible reluctance to reveal his age, even to his nearest relatives or most confidential friends, being one of his peculiarities which remained after he had long survived the period when vanity or interest could possibly supply a motive for such concealment. It was believed by some members of his family that he was born in the year seventeen hundred and thirteen, while others would place that event eight or nine years later; the truth probably lay between these two conjectures. At the age of ten or twelve he came to this country with his father, a respectable farmer, who brought with him a numerous offspring to find settlements in the new world. The family adopted a residence on the west side of the Susquehannah, where the father, after seeing his surviving children well provided for, breathed his last in the year 1761, leaving behind a well deserved reputation for benevolence and honesty. James Smith, the subject of our present notice, was the second son, and was placed for education under the immediate care of the celebrated Dr. Allison, provost of the college at Philadelphia, by whose instructions he so far profited as to acquire a respectable knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and a taste for classical allusion that endured to the termination of his life. He also became skilful in surveying, an art of peculiar usefulness and dignity at that early period, when enterprise and capital were so generally directed to the pur chase of lands, and when no man without some proficiency in the use of the compass and chain, could ascertain his own or his neighbour's boundaries. With these preparatory accomplishments he applied himself to the study of the law, either in the office of Thomas Cookson, or of his elder brother, who had become a practising lawyer in the town of Lancaster but died in early manhood, when James had scarcely completed his pupillage. It is believed that he did not attempt to practise his profession at Lancaster; but immediately after his brother's death removed far into the woods, and established himself, in the blended character of a lawyer and surveyor, in the vicinity of the present site of Shippensburg. |