Preconfederation Ornithology

(bc1805-dc1860)

William Patrick Smith was a little-known early Canadian ornithologist who lived in Upper and Lower Canada during the 1820s and 1830s. In a country like Canada, where so little has been written about our early ornithological history, Smith is a prime example of an important early 19th century ornithologist who is completely unknown.

I have written this extended biography of what I have been able to find out about his life and his work. In the end it is evident that his massive bird collection of over 600 specimens, many of which he likely assembled in Quebec where he lived in the 1820s and 1830s, will remain unknown. This is particularly unfortunate for Canadian ornithology since the greatest gap in scientific knowledge of Canadian ornithology at that time was precisely in southern Quebec and Ontario.

Smith, unpublished and unknown, stands with the other early 19th Century ornitholigical pioneers Charles Fothergill in Toronto, whose work was never published, and Archibald Hall in Montreal whose manuscript, written in 1839, was not published until the early 1860s. Fothergill and Hall are extensively dealt with elsewhere on this website.

The following account has been assembled from the scant unpublished and published documents that have been found to date.

Smith was known to Charles Fothergill (1782-1840), the most prominent ornithologist in Upper Canada during this time. References to Smith are found in three entries of Fothergill's unpublished Natural History Notes (NHN). Fothergill's Notes are considered his last writings on birds. They are ascribed to the 1839 and 1840 period by archivists at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, which holds the Fothergill Collection (MS#140).

Fothergill's three entries related to Smith are as follows:

1. a detailed description (NHN43/44) of a male Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latrirostris) which he obtained “from his friend William Patrick Smith”. Smith told Fothergill that the bird came from the “south-western quarter towards California”. Fothergill refers to Smith as an ornithologist living in Quebec;
2. a second reference was to the Bohemian Chatterer (NHN32), now known as the Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus). “William P. Smith, Ornithologist, has killed this bird in the neighbourhood of Quebec. A few also are occasionally seen in the Upper Province but is more rare here than lower down or more towards the north-east”;
3. the third relates to Fothergill's writings on the Cow-Pen Blackbird of Audubon (NHN12), now known as the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater):

Audubon makes a most extraordinary assertion in regard to it which my experience in Canada would unhesitatingly pronounce untrue since I have the nest and eggs in my possession and have seen hundreds of them. Audubon asserts that this bird makes no nest, and does not incubate after the manner of other birds, but drops its eggs singly after the practice of the European Cuckoo! This assertion with many other romances in his writings a la Vaillant of African celebrity, leads one to place very little reliance up the expansive work of this author as an authority!! However, as Wilson makes the same assertion, I suppose we are bound to admit its truth so for as related to the southern States. This assertion is also fully confirmed by William Patrick Smith the ornithologist.

The information on birds supplied to Fothergill by Smith suggests that he was living in Quebec in the late 1830s. It also suggests Smith may have visited or had contacts with collectors in the southern United States. These scant records were most of what is known of Smith's ornithological legacy.

Most of the early British naturalists and ornithologists came from middle or upper class families. The most prominent Smith family in Quebec was an expatriate American family headed by William Smith, Chief Justice of the Colony, and his son, William Smith Jr (1769-1847), a politician and historian. In a personal discussion with J. M. Bumstead in Winnipeg, author of the article on younger William Smith in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB), Dr. Bumstead stated that William Patrick Smith was not related to this family.

Michel Gosselin of the Canadian Museum of Nature kindly reviewed the complete Fothergill bird manuscript that I transcribed. The end product, Birds of Upper Canada 1840, will be found elsewhere on this website. Having a strong interest in early Quebec ornithology Michel did his own research and found two documents, listed as 1 and 2 below, related to William Patrick Smith. These documents led to the realization that Smith was initially sent to Canada as a member of the a British Regiment. This lead to an examination of two additional documents, listed as 3 and 4 below, regarding the Smith family's association with two British regiments.

The documents are as follows:

1. Smith's brief appointment as a Naturalist and Ornithologist for the State of Michigan in 1837 in Geological Reports of Douglas Houghton, First State Geologists of Michigan 1837-1845;
2. Smith's involvement in attempts to foil an American sponsored attack on the village of Amherstberg near Detroit in the winter of 1837-38, resulting in the Pamphlet, A Naturalist's Chapter of Difficulties published in 1855. This key document provides background detail on his life including coming to Canada with the 66th Regiment of Foot;
3. a history of the Regiment, written by J. P. Groves in 1887, entitled The 66th Berkshire Regiment. A Brief Account of its Services at Home and Abroad, From 1758-1881;
4. The Thirty-Eighth Regiment of Foot by W. J. Freer.

Smith came to Canada with the 66th Regiment in the summer of 1827. Prior to its arrival in Canada the Regiment guarded Napoleon on St Helena between 1817 until his death in 1821. Waiting for a new assignment, the Regiment returned to Britain taking up up short term headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Sunderland, England. In 1823 the Regiment was posted to Ireland and in 1827 to Canada.

The Regiment arrived at Quebec in separate sailings from Ireland in July and August, 1827. It departed Canada in October, 1840. During the posting elements of the Regiment were stationed at various times in Montreal, Kingston, Fort George, Fort York, and Quebec, as well as 15 villages in Upper and Lower Canada.

Smith likely came with the Regiment. He states in Naturalist that he served in Canada for 11 years but likely joined up sometime prior to the Regiment's posting to Canada. We know that he joined as a regular soldier and served for seven years with the rank of Sergeant. In 1834 he was offered and accepted a position as Librarian to the Regiment at Quebec. He was also a member of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec founded in 1824. Given these details and the content in the Fothergill material, Smith may have spent a considerable part of his military service at Quebec.

Very little is known of Smith's early life. His father served in the 38th Regiment (Staffordshire). He was killed at Salamanca, Spain in 1812. The Regiment served in many countries prior to the Napoleonic Wars so William Patrick Smith's birthplace is unknown. Assuming that his father returned to his wife in England between postings, it would have been during one of two home visits between 1800 and 1808. The first was between 1800 and 1805 at Litchfield, Staffordshire, the second, a short stay, also presumably at Litchfield, between 1807 and 1808.

It seems likely that Smith pursued his father's career, and like most young men in the day, joined the army at a young age. Given his father's death in 1812 and his NCO rank in Canada in 1834, which implies some maturity, he may have been born during the first home visit, about 1805, putting him in his early 30s in 1834. One can speculate, given his strong interest in natural history, that he may have been a new recruit to the 66th Regiment about the time of its return from St Helena to Edinburgh in 1821. The University of Edinburgh was a key centre for natural history in the early 1820s.

Presumably William Patrick Smith, who through his lifetime showed a strong interest in birds, would have had a great interest in collecting ornithological specimens in the new frontier of Canada between the time he arrived in 1827 and 1837 when he left the Regiment. Smith resigned from his position with the Regiment when he was offered a position of Ornithologist and Assistant Geologist with the State of Michigan at a salary of $1,500. Official government documents show that he was working and drawing income in Michigan in August, 1837. Smith was also commissioned by the State University (likely the University of Michigan founded in 1817) and fifteen of its branches “to collect ornithological specimens and make up museums” for which he would be paid separately. One can assume that by 1837 Smith had accumulated considerable knowledge, experience and contacts as a North American naturalist and ornithologist in order to secure this important position.

When the Rebellions broke out in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 Smith, newly arrived in Detroit, watched with alarm as Americans openly discussed aiding the rebels. Action included plans to assist the attack on the border town of Amherstberg at the west end of Lake Erie. Smith did everything he could to dissuade American involvement taking on himself to openly advocate non-American involvement with Governor Mason and his direct employer, Dr Houghton, Head of the Michigan Geological Survey. He also payed others to supply him with information. While there is little doubt that Smith's efforts contributed to the successful defence of Amherstberg in January, 1838, he was denounced in Michigan and quickly dismissed from his position. His pamphlet Naturalist is a recounting in detail of his more than 15 years of unsuccessful efforts to seek adequate compensation, essentially seeking three years compensation for lost wages ($4,500 or 900 pounds) from his position in Michigan.

It is evident that Smith's life from this time forward was fraught with hardship. He returned to Toronto in 1838 to begin the process of restitution from the government of Upper Canada and made three subsequent trips to London to lobby politicians and the Colonial Office. The government of Upper Canada made inquiries about Smith's claims with Mason and Houghton who referred to Smith as “still a young man”. It is probable that Smith met Charles Fothergill in Toronto in 1838. This suggests that Fothergill may have been making entries in his Natural History Notes in 1838.

Unable to find work in the Canadas Smith went to England. He notes: “having settled my wife and family in Upper Canada, I came to London in September, 1838, and endeavoured to find employment in some of its various scientific institutions. In this, unfortunately, I did not succeed....” He did secure a small amount of money some of which he used to travel to the United States to find employment. He laments that after four months seeking employment in various states “I could not get employment in my profession throughout the whole of the United States”. This four month period may account for Fothergill's references to Smith's further connections with the United States.

Back in England in 1840 Smith tried again to plead his case for government assistance. In his writings he reveals his frustrations with his professional situation and for the first time the existence and loss of his ornithological collection:

The best, the most ample, and the most profitable field fin‘ my professional exertions, has, by reason of the services which I rendered in Canada, been closed against me. It would be far more congenial to my feelings to follow up my professional pursuits than to solicit a Ministry. These pursuits were to me a passion in the indulgence of which I enjoyed the highest delight, and to be precluded from them forms not the least portion of the loss which I have sustained. I have now no remnant left of the large ornithological collection which I had made, and which when perfected would of itself, to say nothing of the engagements which I have lost, have been a handsome source of income. Six hundred splendid specimens I have been compelled to dispose of from time to time, to make remittances to my wife and family from whom I have been so long separated, as well as for my own maintenance whilst following up my suit with Government.

In the 1840s Smith appears to have been collecting in the southern United States. In Naturalist he indicates he had secured funding “to proceed to Texas, to travel that country as naturalist for my Lord Darby”. Given the fact that Americans would not employ Smith, collecting for the British was a likely outcome. This early connection with Darby may account for his initial presence in the southern States.

Indeed there is a reference in Audubon's Quadrupeds I;238/9 in his discussion of the Collared Peccary that this was the case:

The only recent account we have thus far received, that contains original and authentic information about this singular wild hog, was furnished us by Mr. William P. Smith. He had been sent to this country by our ever kind friend, the Right Honorable the Earl of Derby, for the purpose of procuring living animals to enrich his collection at Knowsley, near Liverpool. We engaged him also to obtain for us any rare species he could meet with in Texas, and to send description of their habits, and any other informations likely to be of interest to the readers of this work. Mr. Smith went to Texas, and shortly afterwards sent us the following account of the Peccary.

Audubon then goes on to describe Smith's account of Texans encounters with this animal. There are no other accounts in Audubon's Quadrupeds of information provided by Smith.

In his final efforts to seek restitution in 1855, Smith published his letter to Sir William Molesworth, Secretary of Sate for the Colonies. He indicates that he was “engaged in making collections in Mississippi” Elsewhere Smith notes that this took place in 1841 and that he mailed the material to a private collector in 1843. One must assume that at this time Smith was still collecting for the Earl of Derby. This particular event appears to be the beginning of a series of issues to receive adequate compensation for his work.

Smith also talks about meeting a “scientific gentleman” who told him that the British Museum was deficient in many things from the southern states and if “I would send them a collection of fish, reptiles and inland shells, the museum would pay me a considerable price for such as they required”. With this in mind Smith says that he selected the interior of the State of Louisiana as his collecting area. He sent his collection to the British Museum from Natchez, Mississippi. Trying to piece together a chronological history of Smith's residence during the 1840s until about 1855 is difficult. It appears that Smith pursued his collecting natural history specimens in the southern states for private collectors and the British Museum throughout this period.

The evolution of his encounters to seek restitution from the British Museum did not turn out any better than his restitution efforts from private collectors and governments. Smith moved to New Orleans in the late 1840s where he was in correspondence with the British Museum. Events continued badly for Smith. His wife died in New Orleans in 1850. This calamity forced Smith “to send my children to the public school”. Again he travelled to London to find out what happened to the collection sent to the British Museum and seek adequate compensation. In this he received very little money.

What happened to William Patrick Smith after the publishing of Naturalist in 1855 is not known. He may well have moved back to New Orleans and may have passed his final days in the southern United States eking out a life as a collector for British institutions and wealthy patrons.

It appears from the record that his fate was sealed by his unrelenting devotion to the British Empire, the political times, and the realities of trying to make a living as a paid naturalist and collector in the early days of the profession in North America. In this he appears to have failed to leave a published legacy of his ornithological work, like his contemporary the ornithologist, Charles Fothergill. Unlike Fothergill whose unpublished manuscripts have been found, no unpublished documents of Smith's natural history research have been found to date. This is unfortunate for Canadian ornithology since it is very likely that the 600 ornithological specimens, which were likely collected in southern Canada prior to 1840, may have had significant value.

Bibliography

• Audubon, J. J. 1854. Quadrupeds of North America. New York: V. G. Audubon
• Freer, W. J. Undated. The Thirty-Eighth Regiment of Foot, Now the First Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment, unpublished. https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1915_BNJ_11_14.pdf
• Groves, J. Percy, 1887. The 66th Berkshire Regiment. A Brief Account of its Services at Home and Abroad, From 1758-1881 Reading, England: J. J. Beecroft
• Fuller, George N., Edit, 1928. Geological Reports of Douglas Houghton, First State Geologists of Michigan 1837-1845. Lansing: The Michigan Historical Commission
• Smith, William Patrick, A. 1855. Naturalist's Chapter of Difficulties. Westminster: W. Blanchard & Sons