Smith, James (1782 -1867)

James Smith, of Jordan Hill near Glasgow, was the eldest son of Archibald Smith, and Isobel Ewing. He was educated at Edinburgh Grammar School and the University of Glasgow. He became a sleeping partner in his father’s firm of Leitch and Smith, West India merchants. He married, 25 August 1809, Mary, daughter of Alexander Wilson, and granddaughter of Professor Alexander Wilson of Glasgow. He succeeded his father in 1821. A genealogist and man of letters and an enthusiastic yachtsman, he collected books, particularly travel books. A member of both the Royal Yacht Club and the Royal Northern Yacht Club, he sailed his own yacht. He was an officer in the Renfrewshire Militia, a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Geographical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Justice of the Peace for the counties of Renfrew, Lanark, Stirling and Dumbarton. For many years he was the President of the Andersonian University in Glasgow. In 1848 he published The voyage and shipwreck of St Paul, in which he drew upon his knowledge of seamanship.