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Ann Smollett, Wife of Tobias Smollett

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Lewis M. Knapp*
Affiliation:
Williams College

Extract

Almost a century and a half ago, on March 3, 1784, a brilliant audience overflowed the Theatre Royal at Edinburgh on the occasion of a performance “For the Benefit of a Lady in Distress.” The proceeds, some three hundred pounds, were later sent to Ann Smollett, then a widow in Leghorn. Since that remote period there has been very little news of the wife of Tobias Smollett. Rather recently, however, certain material has come to hand which contributes to our knowledge of Ann Smollett, and also throws additional light upon the closing years of the author of Roderick Random.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 1930 , pp. 1035 - 1049
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1930

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References

1 Works of Tobias Smollett with Memoirs of his Life and A View of the Commencement and Progress of Romance by John Moore, London, 1797, 8 vols. Memoir in Vol. I.

2 The Life of Tobias Smollett, M.D. with Critical Observations On His Works by Robert Anderson, The Fourth Edition, Edinburgh, 1803, p. 27.

3 Memoir, 1806, p. 21. See also Works, Ed. Anderson, Edinburgh, 1820, I, 20.

4 The Letters of Tobias Smollett, M.D., Ed. E. S. Noyes, Harvard Press, 1926, p. 80.

5 Ibid.

6 Memoir, 1803, p. 34–5.

7 The Memoir of 1806, p. 27, alters the end of this sentence to read, “the enjoyment of a confortable, though moderate, estate in that island.” Again one finds that Smollett's own phrase has been introduced (See Letters, Ed. Noyes, p. 80). See also Works, Edinburgh, 1820, I, 25.

8 The time and place of Smollett's wedding are still unknown, and no record of it has been found either in Jamaica or in London.

9 Monmouth House at Chelsea.

10 This paragraph was revised in the Memoir of 1806, p. 27, and in Works, Ed. Anderson 1820, I, 25 to read as follows:.... “suitable to the taste and education of his wife, in dependence on the produce of her estate, which, being liable to the casualties incident to West-Indian property, the remittances were precarious and uncertain, and under every kind of management, a perpetual source of vexation and disappointment.” Anderson's changes are of course due to his recent knowledge of Smollett's correspondence with Dr. Macaulay.

11 Smollett: His Life and a Selection from his Writings, London and Edinburgh 1867.

12 Traditions of Edinburgh, 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1825, I, 272–3.

13 There is a possible exception to this statement in the biography by Oliphant Smeaton, Tobias Smollett, Famous Scots Series, Edinburgh and London, 1897. But Smeaton's statements on the whole are without the slightest documentation.

14 Life of Tobias George Smollett by David Hannay, London, 1887, p. 41.

15 For example, Thomas Seccombe's article in the Dictionary of National Biography and Lewis Melville's Life and Letters of Tobias Smollett, London, 1926.

16 Their daughter Elizabeth had died April 3, 1763. Her loss was a crushing blow to Smollett. See The Letters of Tobias Smollett, M.D. Ed. E. S. Noyes, Harvard Press, 1926, pp. 82, 84–5.

17 It is not clear who these girls were. Seccombe (in his edition of the Travels in The World's Classics, Oxford Press, 1921, p. xviii) suggested that Mrs. Smollett acted as their chaperon.

18 Travels, Letter 34.

19 See Smollett as Poet by Howard S. Buck, Yale Press, 1927, pp. 53 and 58.

20 Letters Ed. Noyes, p. 110.

21 The location of the original MS of Smollett's will is unknown. I quote from a certified copy of the exemplification of the will obtained from the Island Record Office, Jamaica, B.W.I. (Liber of Wills 40 folio 68. Ent.d 26th August 1772). A complete copy of the will, which has never been published, is in my possession.

22 Traditions of Edinburgh by Robert Chambers. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1825, I, 272ff.

23 Opus cit. p. 174.

24 This privilege I owe to the courtesy of Mr. Stanley Cursiter, Keeper of Manuscripts in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The letter is in the Collection of Watson Manuscripts.

25 Mr. Auld was probably Allan Auld, whom Smollett appointed as one of the executors of his will. He may have been related to Robert Auld and William Auld with whom the printer William Smellie was in partnership in 1765. See Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Correspondence of William Smellie by Robert Kerr, Edinburgh, 1811, I, 302.

26 Mr. Telfer was Alexander Telfer, Smollett's nephew. Chambers (Opus Cit. I, 273) contributed the following note: “Mr. Telfer (afterwards Smollett) gave a handsome sum for the Doctor's Library, as a sort of present to the widow; but never received the books, which were allowed to remain in London, where they were lost. The family does not now possess a single volume that had ever been the property of their illustrious relative.” Chambers, however, stated later that a “few” of the volumes reached Mr. Telfer. (Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Glasgow, 1835, IV, 278) Smollett's own copy of the Travels, at least, was possessed by the Telfer family. It is now in the British Museum. With this exception Smollett's books have apparently disappeared.

27 Probably one of the editions in four volumes of Smollett's translation. At least four editions had appeared by 1770.

28 During his final months in Italy Smollett was working on some sort of revision of the Universal History, probably of the Modern Part, which he had helped prepare for the press from 1759–1766. See Letters Ed. Noyes, Letters 42; 47–50. According to the anonymous Memoirs prefixed to his Plays and Poems, London, 1777, p. xiii, “he lived nearly to compleat this work, and it is said it will soon be published.” Shortly after Smollett's death there were rumors of the coming publication of this revision, as is evidenced in a letter of R. Gough to Rev. Michael Tyson, Dec. 16, 1771. .... “An Abridgement of the Universal History whether antient or modern, or only the former, left by Smollett, is to make its appearance this winter.” (Literary Anecdotes, Ed. Nichols, VIII, 574). It is probable that this “abridgement” was never published.

29 Another reference to the Universal History.

30 It is impossible to establish with any degree of certainty the dates of Smollett's residence at Lucca Baths. It is clear, however, that he was at Lucca during the summer of 1771. (Letters Ed. Noyes pp. 109–10; 230 ff).

31 Commissary Smollett, who began erecting the monument at Renton, near the Leven, in 1773.

32 The intricate and vexing problem of the exact place of Smollett's death and burial, together with the matter of memorial monuments in Italy can not be entered upon in a footnote. I hope to deal with it in a later paper.

33 William Johnston and Benjamin Collins published The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

34 The novel alluded to was undoubtedly The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

35 It appears that Archibald Hamilton, one of Smollett's associates on the Critical Review, acted as an agent for the Smolletts in the matter of their income from their West Indian property, possibly assuming such duties after the Smolletts' final departure from England. Robert Graham of Gartmore, wrote to Smollett from London, August 13, 1771: “A short time before I left Jamaica I received your letter from Leghorn replete with various complaints. If Mr. Hamilton has used you badly, I heartily condole with you”. .... This Letter is printed in part by Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham in his Doughty Deeds, London, 1925, p. 85. A complete copy of the above letter, and copies of other letters of Robert Graham of Gartmore to Mrs. Smollett and to her friends, I owe to the courtesy of Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham. By virtue of these letters and other material now accessible it will soon be possible to determine the approximate income which the Smolletts enjoyed from the West Indies.

36 See The Life and Letters of Tobias Smollett by Lewis Melville, London, 1926, p. 269.

37 A copy of this letter I owe to the courtesy of Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham.

38 This letter was probably written immediately after Mrs. Smollett learned of the disaster.

39 The Telfers.

40 The present location of the manuscript of this letter is unknown. It was first printed in the European Magazine and London Review, Vol. 44 (1803) p. 335. This lost manuscript was probably the one listed in the Sale Catalogue of the Manuscript Library of Dawson Turner, June 6, 1859, p. 279 under the following: “Smollett, Tobias, A.L.s. 1 page 4 to 1759 with A.L.s. of his wife, 1783.”

41 George and Anne Renner.

42 See Anderson's note of identification, Works, 1820, I, 105.

43 Works, 1820, I, 105. Similar statements appear in the earlier Memoirs.

44 This Prologue was probably first printed in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, Mar. 3, 1784, where no author's name appeared. It has often been reprinted. The extract above follows the Edinburgh Evening Courant.

45 The will of Ann Smollett was published some thirty years ago in a newspaper (in Jamaica, B.W.I.) called The Gleaner, (Feb. 13, 1897) and was afterwards printed in The Journal of the Institute of Jamaica, Vol. 2, No. 5, p. 430. The above copy is from the latter source.

46 Mr. and Mrs. Renner had long been friends of the Smolletts in Italy and had no doubt been free to loan money to Mrs. Smollett during her financial emergencies.

47 This letter was printed by Anderson (Works, 1820, I, 202). See also Melville, Opus cit. p. 273. The manuscript is in the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

48 For copies of these letters I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham.

49 I am indebted to Mr. Bunford Samuel for a photostat of the original MS. of this letter now at the Ridgway Library, (vol. 967 F) Philadelphia.

50 Mr. Patch was a prominent English artist at Florence. For some account of his activity see Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence, John Doran, London, 1876, II, 220 ff.

51 The MS of this unpublished letter is at the Ridgway Library (MSS. Rush, vol. 28) Philadelphia.

52 I am unable to identify this person.

53 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Ed. J. J. Howard, III Series, Vol. II, London, 1898, p. 89.

54 From the same record of inscriptions, we learn that George W. Renner had died “Decem. 19th 1790 aged 85 years.”