Biography
Born in Tarbat, Ross, Smith was the son of James Smith (d. 1684-5), a mason, who became a burgess of Forres, Moray, in 1659. Smith initially trained as a priest, and went to Italy as a young man, possibly to enter the Catholic priesthood. A James Smith of Morayshire attended the Scots College, Rome from 1671–75, although it is not known if this is the same person. He had certainly travelled abroad, however, and was well-educated, with a knowledge of Latin.
By December 1677, Smith was in touch with Sir William Bruce, the most prominent architect of the time in Scotland, and the designer of the rebuilt Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. Here, Smith served as a mason, under the direction of the master mason Robert Mylne. By December 1679 he was married to Mylne's daughter Janet, when he was made a burgess of Edinburgh in right of his father-in-law. He was admitted to the Incorporation of St Mary's Chapel, the guild of masons and wrights in Edinburgh, in 1680.
In 1683 he was appointed, at the recommendation of the Duke of Queensberry, to the post of Surveyor and Overseer of the Royal Works, a post previously held by Bruce, with a salary of £100 a year. He was responsible for maintenance of Holyrood Palace, and refurbished the former Holyrood Abbey as a chapel royal for King James VII. From 1685-86 he sat in the Parliament of Scotland as member for Forres.
His Royal appointment was renewed after the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, but he never received further pay. He surveyed some of the forts built in the Highlands after 1714, for the Board of Ordnance, but this employment ended in 1719 with the appointment of Andrews Jelfe as architect to the Board. He complained in a letter to John Clerk of Penicuik that he had been "disgracefully turned out of His Majesty's service in the 73rd year of his age". In 1715 he unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for Member of Parliament for Edinburgh.
In 1686 he purchased the estate of Whitehill, near Musselburgh. However, an unsuccessful coal-mining venture forced him to sell part of the estate in 1706, and he assigned the rest to his son-in-law Gilbert Smith in 1726. Smith fathered 18 children by his first wife, Janet Mylne, who died in 1699, aged 37. He remarried, and fathered another 14 children by his second wife.
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