Series 31 - Reverend Thomas Smyth letters and memoir

33pp

Transcripts of 13 letters found in Smyth, T. (1914), Autobiographical Notes, Letters and Reflections (Charleston: Walker, Evans & Cogswell), plus Kerby A. Miller's notes introducing the letters.
Reverend Thomas Smyth's family, originally from Belfast, was Presbyterian and involved in the grocery and tobacco manufacturing business. Samuel Smyth, Thomas's father, narrowly escaped severe consequences for his patriotism during the 1798 uprising, with many associates executed. Despite initial adversity and commercial ruin in 1825, the family ensured Thomas received a quality education. He aimed for the ministry and attended Highbury College in London but faced unjust accusations, leading to his departure. Consequently, he emigrated to America in 1830 with his sister Anna, where they were reunited with family and settled in New Jersey, joining their brother Joseph's Presbyterian church. At this point began Thomas Smyth's career as a Presbyterian minister, and in late 1831, he answered a call to the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in which city he lived, basically, for the rest of his life until his death in 1873.