SMITH, EDMUND, only son of Edmund Neale, London, merchant, and Margaret, dau. of Sir Nicholas Lechmere, Kt, Baron of the Exchequer; bapt. St. Bartholomew Exchange, London 29 Jan 1671 (IGI); adopted by a kinsman named Smith, whose surname he assumed; adm.; KS 1684; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1688, but went to Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 25 Jun 1688, aged 16, Canoneer Student 9 Jul 1688 – expulsion 20 Dec 1705; BA 1692; MA 1696; his irregular behaviour frequently brought him into conflict with the authorities at Oxford; admonished for profligate behaviour 24 Dec 1694, conditionally expelled for riotous behaviour 24 Apr 1700 and eventually deprived of his Studentship for lampooning Henry Aldrich (qv), then Dean of Christ Church; adm. Inner Temple 1690; his tragedy Phaedra and Hippolytus, with a prologue by Addison and an epilogue by Prior, was produced at the Haymarket Theatre 21 Apr 1707; Johnson declared that Smith’s Latin ode on the death of Dr. Pococke was unequalled among modern writers, and that his Elegy on John Philips was “among the best elegies which our language can show” (Lives of the Poets, ed. Hill, ii, 12, 16); his Works, with a life by William Oldisworth, were published in 1719; buried Hartham, Wilts., Jul 1710. DNB.
