Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameAbel SMITH (II) MP, 9031
Birth1717
Death1788
FatherAbel SMITH (I) , 10746 (1690-1757)
Spouses
1Mary BIRD, 8990
Birth1725
Death1788
FatherThomas BIRD , 8989 (1694-)
MotherElizabeth MARTYN , 1100 (1695-)
Marriage1745
ChildrenRobert , 9032 (1752-1838)
 Samuel Smith , 9033 (1754-1834)
 Abel , 10747 (1748-1779)
Notes for Abel SMITH (II) MP
Nottingham banker

From Wikipedia

Abel was taken on as an apprentice by Alderman William Wilberforce in 1732
and took control of the Wilberforce family business after the death of Robert
in 1768.

Abel Smith (14 March 1717 – 12 July 1788) was a British Member of Parliament and banker.
Smith was the third son of a wealthy banker in Nottingham, also called Abel Smith (c. 1690-1756), and followed him into the same business. (By the end of the century Smith's Bank was one of the biggest in England). He entered Parliament as member for Aldborough in 1774, and later also represented St Ives and St Germans. These were all pocket boroughs, and Smith may well have had to pay considerable sums to the proprietors to secure his seats; later a proportion of the family wealth was devoted to buying the Smiths a couple of pocket boroughs of their own, and by the early 19th century his son, Lord Carrington, could nominate the MPs at both Midhurst and Wendover.

Smith seems to have become an MP as much with the business advantages in mind as with any high political ambitions. Brooke quotes him as writing, shortly before he was first elected in 1774, "I see many solid advantages accruing to my family from a seat in Parliament, the best of which, the article of franking [the right to free postage, valuable in those days of heavy postal rates], will save a very considerable expense in so extensive a business as that I am engaged in." Although he supported the government, his first two speeches in the House of Commons were both attacks on the government for the way in which they had allotted subscriptions for government loans, in each case referring to occasions when his own firm had been excluded.
He was a partner in Samuel Smith & Co. Nottingham and established, in 1758, the London Bank of Smith & Payne (later Smith, Payne & Smiths). He also established Samuel Smith Bros & Co., Hull and Smith, Ellison & Co., Lincoln.

He married, in 1745, Mary Bird (1724–1780), and they had eight children, several of whom followed their father into Parliament:

Thomas Smith (1746–1769)
Abel Smith (1748–1779), MP for Nottingham
Robert Smith (1752–1838), MP for Nottingham, created Baron Carrington in 1796
Samuel Smith (1754–1834), MP for Leicester, Malmesbury, Midhurst, St Germans and Wendover
George Smith (1765–1836), MP for Lostwithiel, Midhurst and Wendover
John Smith (1767–1842), MP for Nottingham, Wendover, Midhurst and Buckinghamshire
Elizabeth Smith (1759–1789) m. William Manning
Lucy Smith d.1835

Abel Smith died on 12 July 1788 at Wilford House, the family home in Nottinghamshire, aged 71 and is buried in St Peter's Church, Nottingham.
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