SMITH, SEBASTIAN, eldest son of Sir Sebastian Smith, Kt, Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, barrister, Bencher Middle Temple, and Grace, dau. of Edward Astyn, Oxley, Staffs., attorney; grandson of Sebastian Smith (KS in 1619, qv); b. 1677; adm.; KS 1693; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1696, matr. 4 Jul 1696, aged 18, Westminster Student 29 Dec 1696 – void 1709; BA 1700; MA 11 Mar 1702/3; adm. Middle Temple 20 May 1699; was kept so short of money by his that “Jew, his father” that “his utmost ambition” was “any clerk’s place of £50 per annum value” (HMC Portland vii, 12-3); of Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire; left a small bequest to the School, the income of which was divisable among those elected to Oxford and Cambridge; m. by 1710 Hester, dau. of Joseph Lowndes, Chiswick, Middlesex; buried Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire 6 Dec 1752.
On 30 May 1753 the Dean and Chapter, reciting that he had “by his will bequeathed the sum of £50, the interest whereof to be for the benefit of the King’s Scholars”, ordered the money to be invested. He had in fact died intestate ; it seems probable, therefore, that the gift was made either by his widow or by his daughter Barbara (to whom administration of his estate was granted 4 Jan.1752/3), in accordance with a wish expressed by him in his lifetime, either verbally or in some document not admissible to probate as a will. The money was invested in the 3 ½ per cents, but it seems that for many years the income was not applied for the benefit of the King’s Scholars. On 20 Apr 1804 it was, however, ordered by the Chapter that a separate account should be kept of this fund, and the interest “applied for the benefit of the King’s Scholars elected to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge”.
