Thomas Smibert

Thomas Smibert (1810–1854) was a Scottish journalist, writer and poet.

Life

He was born on 8 February 1810 at Peebles, where his father, Thomas Smibert, a leather-merchant, was provost (1808–11); his mother's name was Janet Tait. Educated there, he was apprenticed to a druggist, and then qualified as a surgeon at Edinburgh University.[1]

Smibert set up as a surgeon at Innerleithen, near Peebles, but left after a year when faced by personal and business problems. From Peebles he contributed to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, of which he became sub-editor and editor between 1837 and 1842. During that period he wrote for the periodical about 650 literary articles, tales, and biographical sketches. He was also a large contributor to Chambers's Information for the People.[1]

In 1842 Smibert became sub-editor of The Scotsman, but a legacy meant he shortly dropped journalism for literature. In his later years he was a frequent contributor to Hogg's Instructor. He died at Edinburgh on 16 January 1854.[1]

Works

Smibert wrote:[1]

  • Condé's Wife (1842), a historical play that had a run of nine nights at the Edinburgh Theatre Royal.
  • Clans of the Highlands of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1850).
  • Io Anche! Poems chiefly Lyrical (Edinburgh, 1851), a collection of his verse including the song The Scottish Widow's Lament, with a Tweeddale setting and in dialect.[2]

Notes
  1. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Smibert, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. Millar, Victoria. "Smibert, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25759. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Smibert, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.