The Reverend Edmund Smyth of Great Linford

Referring to Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry Volume 2, the Smyth family held a number of manors, one at Annables in Hertforshire (on which estate stood Kingsbourn Hall) and others at North and South Elkington in Lincolnshire. Prior to this the family had resided in the Lincolnshire hamlet of Acthorpe, where they can be traced back to at least the 13th century. Edmund Smyth, who was to become Rector of Great Linford, was born in 1726, the eldest son of William Smyth (Rector of Emberton) and Barbara Johnson.

Edmund married Dorethea Shan, the sister of Lawson Shan, who had been the Rector of Great Linford between 1762-1770. The marriage occurred on June 10th, 1756 at Chicheley in Buckinghamshire, and would result in at least 10 children. Edmund was initially appointed to the living of Tyringham in Buckinghamshire and only took up his position at Great Linford on July 21st, 1770, so we can reasonably assume that any children baptised from this date onward would have been born at Great Linford Rectory. Hence we can pinpoint the following births. Maria was baptised 1771; she would marry a Henry Cape of Hardingstone. Edmund was baptised 1772, but tragically died at sea in unknown circumstances. Ann was baptised 1775 and would marry a Henry Hughes.  Burkes Peerage names 9 children in total, but the memorial inscription to Edmund and Doretha on the chancel floor of St. Andrews names two other children, John and Barbara, both of whom died in 1777.

Though they were not born in Great Linford, two other children are worth mentioning here. George married an Ann Audibert of Philadelphia, but died in Sierra Leone. Susannah married a Doctor Henry Locock at Great Linford on April 20th, 1788. Their son Charles born 1799 in Northamptonshire also became a doctor and a personal physician to the queen, attending the birth of all her children.

Unfortunately, we know little else of the life of Edmund and his activities at Great Linford, but he retired in 1786 and passed away a few years later on August 16th 1789, aged 64. It seems that Edmund was also Rector of Tyringham from 1760, but was succeeded at Great Linford in 1786 by his son William Smyth.

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