A Liverpool Exemplar - Samuel Smith

 

Samuel Smith was born on the 11th of January 1836 at Roberton, in the parish of Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire. He was educated at the Borgue parish school and entered Edinburgh University when almost sixteen before being apprenticed to a cotton-broker in Liverpool in 1853. He spent his leisure in study, frequenting the Liverpool literary societies and speaking at the Philomathic Society, of which he became president. In 1857 he became manager of the cotton salesroom and began to write with authority on the cotton market in the 'Liverpool Daily Post,' under the signature 'Mercator'. In 1860 he visited New Orleans and the cotton-growing districts of North America, and on his return, having made a tour of the leading Lancashire manufacturing centres, he started in business as a cotton-broker in Chapel Street, Liverpool. In the winter of 1862-3 he went to India on behalf of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to test the cotton-growing possibilities of the country as the American Civil War had depleted the English market. On the 1st of January 1864 the firm of Smith, Edwards & Co., cotton-brokers, was launched, and three months later Samuel also became head of the Liverpool branch of the large cotton business James Finlay & Co. of Glasgow and Bombay. Cotton-spinning and manufacturing were subsequently added to his activities by the purchase of Millbrook mills in Stalybridge.

Smith married Melville Christison on the 20th of July 1864, the daughter of the Rev. John Christison, D.D., of Biggar, Lanarkshire. From early on in Liverpool Samuel was an active philanthropist as he interested himself in efforts for prevention of cruelty to children, for establishing scholarships to connect primary and secondary schools in 1874, and for improving public houses. He became a prominent figure in Liverpool’s civic politics and, as a zealous presbyterian of liberal views, advocated a liberalism that campaigned for free trade and social reform. In 1876 he ​became president of the Liverpool chamber of commerce and entered the town council in 1879 as an ardent temperance reformer.

Chancery House, Paradise Street, Liverpool

At a bye-election in Liverpool in December 1882, Samuel Smith defeated the Conservative Arthur Forwood in what was regarded as a conservative stronghold and was elected as Liberal MP by a majority of 309. In 1885 he was defeated in the Abercromby division of Liverpool, but in March 1886 was returned for Flintshire during his absence whilst in India. Gladstone's residence, Hawarden Castle, was in his constituency, and Samuel was often there, exchanging views with the statesman. He zealously promoted the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, and his efforts made legal the evidence of young children. The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act of 1889 embodied reforms which he had advocated in Liverpool. In memory of their son, James Gordon Smith (1870–1900), who predeceased him, the Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen, in Paradise Street, Liverpool, was founded in 1900 and carried on by his father. So in 1900 he erected and furnished a building as a memorial to mark the death of his son and The Gordon Smith Institute, Paradise Street, became the headquarters for the Liverpool Seamen's Friend Society, accommodating up to two hundred seafarers a night. 

In the summer of 1901 his health failed, but he retained his seat in parliament until the end of 1905, when he was named a privy councillor on his retirement. Samuel died the following year in 1906.

A tall granite obelisk Monument to Samuel Smith MP was completed in 1909 by sculptor C. J. Allen. with sculptured panels of figures in relief on a square plinth with a bronze inscription. Drinking fountains are on two sides on rusticated base and it stands in at the Lodge Lane entrance to Sefton Park.
Edge Hill University has a hall of residence called Smith in honour of his contribution to the institution, as he co-founded the university in 1885.

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