James Smithson - Early Life

Early Life

James Smithson was born about 1765 to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie. His mother was the widow of James Macie, a wealthy man from Weston, Bath. An illegitimate child, Smithson was born in secret in Paris, making his exact birth date a mystery. His birth name was James Lewis Macie, and after the death of his parents he changed his last name to Smithson in 1801. He was educated and eventually naturalized in England. In 1766, his mother inherited Hungerfords of Studley, where her brother had lived up until his death. Smithson enrolled at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1782 and graduated in 1786 with his Masters of Arts.

Smithson was nomadic in his lifestyle, traveling throughout Europe. As a student, in 1784, he participated in a geological expedition with Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, William Thornton and Paolo Andreani of Scotland and the Hebrides. He was in Paris during the French Revolution. In August 1807 Smithson became a prisoner of war while in Tönning during the Napoleonic Wars. He arranged a transfer to Hamburg, where he was again imprisoned, this time by the French. The following year, Smithson wrote to Sir Joseph Banks and asked him to use his influence to help free Smithson. Banks succeeded and Smithson returned to England. He never married or had children. Smithson's wealth stemmed from the splitting of his mothers estate with his half-brother, Col. Henry Louis Dickinson.