Richard Smith

Mr. Smith in the Strand—He was born with auspicious Starrs, has made Several Auctions with good success, and increases daily, both in Fame and Riches.

SMITH (RICHARD), bookseller in London, (1) Angel and Bible, (a) near the May-Pole, Strand, (b) without Temple Bar; (2) Fore-walk of Exeter Change in the Strand; (3) Bishop Beveridge's Head in Paternoster Row. 1698–1720. Began business as a publisher in 1698, and issued several of the writings of William Beveridge, Bishop of St. Asaph. He moved to Exeter Change in 1708, and afterwards opened a shop in Paternoster Row, which he named. after his patron, Bishop Beveridge's Head. At the time of the fire at the elder Bowyer's printing office, Richard Smith had in that press Bishop Buil's Important Points of Primitive Christianity as well as an edition of Bishop Bull's Works; all of which were destroyed. Bowyer made good the paper, although Smith had released him from any obligation to do so, and also paid Smith the same dividend as other sufferers received. [Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 1. 55–6.] Smith died before 1721, and was succeeded in the business by his widow Mary Smith. [Nichols, Lit. Anecd. 1. 219.] Dunton has two references to Mr. Smith, but there is nothing to show to whom they apply.

SMITH, RICHARD. He had a shop at the Angel and Bible without Temple Bar, by 1698. In 1708 he shifted to Exeter Change in the Strand, and a few years later to Bishop Beveridge's Head in Paternoster Row, where he died on April 18, 1732. Bowyer was printing a number of books for him when his disastrous fire occurred, in which they were all destroyed. Bowyer, however, compensated him for the loss. Smith's death was due to suicide, he having first murdered his wife and child.

FREDERICK T. WOOD.
"Notes on London Booksellers and Publishers, 1700–1750"
Notes and Queries (10 October 1931), p. 257

SMITH, RICHARD. If Mary Smith, the widow of Richard Smith, had succeeded to the business of her late husband in 1720/21, as Dr. Wood avers, then the statement that Richard Smith died on 18 April, 1732, is irreconcilable. It would appear that Dr. Wood has confused Richard Smith, the book-seller of the Strand and Paternoster with a Richard Smith, a bookbinder, who, with his wife, contrived an infanticide and an elaborate double suicide, on 18 April, 1732, as recounted in lurid detail by Timperley. (p. 645). The account of Richard and Mary Smith given by Plomer seems preferable. This simple tale is that "Smith died before 1721 and was succeeded in the business by his widow Mary Smith," and for authority he gives Nichols 'Lit. Anecd.' i. 219. This account has the advantage of tallying with what Dr. Wood tells us of Mary Smith.

AMBROSE HEAL.
"London Booksellers and Publishers, 1700–1750"
Notes and Queries (28 November 1931), p. 384