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Hi Brutus,
thank you. My Mother in Law actually had a copy of the Will. I thought she did and I asked her for it years ago and things happened so I didn't get it. So I now have a copy of the Will and need to spend some time reading it. As you say it is very long and complicated.
I would be really interested in getting the other information that you have though. I will be going through the information that my Mother in Law gave me the other day and seeing if I can find anything further of use to either of us. Unfortunately I don't think that she has much more on the Smith family. She is searching for some information but the majority of the information that she did have was stolen. It was in her aunts house in a fashionable suitcase and someone broke in and stole the whole suitcase with all of the information in it. It seems that the world is conspiring to help James hide his origins.
The letter that you mention, I also have a photocopy of. Some of the works are illegible in the photocopy. Do you have a better copy? Or more full and correct details.
I think that John Smith or (Gentleman Smith) as he was known, bashing may have occurred at the time just as much as it does now. I came across a piece in the news paper the other day which had one person running for the position of Alderman. In it he was running on a platform that was aimed at getting 'John Smith' to be treated the same as any other man and to have to pay the same proportion of rates as other men, for the amount of property they owned. This man did not get enough votes to become an Alderman. So I suspect that John Smith was a bit of a character and did both good things and bad things during his life. What a surprise, that makes him just like anyone else and also makes him much more interesting to research because it means that he has much more depth of character.

Thanks again, looking forward to hearing more from you. My original research into my own family, was also initially started in the days before computers and word processors and by writing to family members and individuals. So I understand where you are coming from.

Tina

Ah, OK that makes sense.
Indeed Gentleman Smith is a very shady character. So far I don't have confirmation of the birth place.

However, I do now have a bunch more information. See attachment as putting it into the message is too large.
I have included the link where I found that information at the end.

The Australian Newspaper Index Trove is coming back online over the next couple of days as well and I have found another bunch of Newspaper articles that I will have a look at over the next couple of days to see if there are any options in any of that stuff.

Thanks everyone for looking further. I am really pleased to see how well this search is going and how willing people are to help out.

Tina

Hi Brutus,
I don't have all of the children. I have 10 children in total and only 9 of those to John Smith, one of them is by Mary with her first husband. So I would love to do an information swap with you. I also do not have a copy of the Will from John Smith and yes would absolutely love a scanned copy if it if you are happy to share.
I agree that there is likely to be something a bit odd with the parents in the first place. Where did you get the birth location? My side of the family hasn't got anything so specific and in fact we have a birth date origin of a couple of years. It sounds like you have much more precise information than I do.
However, the family stories that come down to my children and to me do talk about James being a member of a rather prominent family in Manchester. They also say that he got his education and some money from them. They believe that he was a younger son of the family who "went bad" and that if he needed it, when he was in Australia he was able to get help from the family in the UK, at least initially.
Given where he ended up and how easily he was able to rise in Australian Society I would expect that his education was certainly quite reasonable. He certainly had extremely good hand writing etc. So while I certainly wonder about his origins I am not sure that the original details about his origins and his link to the family is incorrect. It certainly fits very well with the family stories. But maybe once I have more information I may come to be more of your mind.

Cheers,
Tina