▶Date of birth:  19 November 1802        Place of birth:  Brentford, Middlesex

▶Father: William Smith   Mother: Elizabeth

▶Spouse(s):  Anne     Date(s) of marriage:       Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: Baptist Minister

▶Lifestory: James Smith became a significant Baptist minister, principally in Cheltenham. He was baptised in 1802 at Albany Congregationalist Church, Brentford, the son of William Smith, and his wife Elizabeth. By 1831 he was Pastor of the Cheltenham Bethel Baptist Chapel, when he preached a sermon on behalf of the Baptist Irish Society, and by 1837 was the pastor at the Salem Chapel in Cheltenham. He was much sought after for his sermons, and many were published, along with other texts such as A messenger of mercy (1845), Believer’s daily remembrancer, and Light for dark days (1858); he was strongly teetotal and worked alongside Francis Close.

In 1842, after a successful pastorate in Cheltenham he transferred to New Park Street, London (where he preceded C. H. Spurgeon), and in 1851 went to the First Baptist Church in Claremont Street, Shrewsbury as Pastor, where he lived at the time of the 1851 census in Whitehall Street, with his wife Ann (born in Birmingham c1798), and their son and two daughters. He was at the same time elected to the committee of the Shrewsbury branch of the London Protestant alliance. He was succeeded in Shrewsbury by the Revd. Thomas Howe, who had previously succeeded him in Cheltenham.

By 1852 he had returned to Cheltenham, as Pastor of the King Street Baptist Chapel, a congregation that had split from the Salem Chapel; he is said to have returned partly through ill health and partly at the request of his new congregation. Between around 1853 and 1862 he lived at 7 Selkirk Parade (now 59 Prestbury Road) with his wife Ann. His congregation moved in 1855 to the new purpose-built Cambray Baptist Chapel, where he worked until he resigned because of ill-heath in 1862. He had worked to collect money to pay off the debt on the chapel, but had suffered a serious paralytic attack in 1861, from which he never recovered. He died in Cheltenham in late 1862, at the age of sixty.

▶Moved to Pittville from: Shrewsbury    Moved from Pittville to: (deceased)

▶Date of death:  15 December 1862    Place of death: Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes: See also Jonathan Hunt’s website dedicated to James Smith.        ID: 6902

Contributor(s):  John Simpson