Smith, Erasmus

Smith, Erasmus (1611–91), merchant and alderman of London, and Cromwellian land speculator. In 1657 he vested a portion of his Irish estates, 12,400 out of some 46,000 acres, in trustees, who included Thomas Harrison (Henry Cromwell's chaplain), Henry Jones (vice‐chancellor of Trinity College), and several prominent Independent clergymen. They were to found and maintain schools ‘so that the poor children inhabiting any part of his lands in Ireland should be brought up in the fear of God, and good literature and to speak the English tongue’. Scholarships to Trinity College were to be available for the most able children.

Following the Restoration, the trust was confirmed by charter of Charles II in 1669, which appointed ‘Governors of the schools founded by Erasmus Smith Esq’. While including some of the original members, these now comprised also the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, and were empowered to establish free grammar schools at Drogheda, Galway, and Tipperary. In addition to the children of tenants of Smith's estates, 20 poor children might be admitted. The scope of the endowment was extended in 1723 to allow for the founding of new ‘English Schools’ and also for providing fellowships and professorships in Trinity College.

Kenneth Milne