Enthusiasts yesterday celebrated the restoration of the forgotten Highland grave of a doctor who played a key role at the battle of Trafalgar.. Niel Smith was an assistant ship's surgeon who fought to save the life of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson on HMS Victory after the British commander had been shot by a French sniper. He appears in two celebrated paintings of Nelson's final moments..(..)
…a chance discovery by local historians and the efforts of the 1805 Club… Dr Smith's overgrown grave was discovered after Cawdor Heritage Group carried out a survey of gravestones in Cawdor cemetery in the mid 1990s… Unveiling the plaque, Ewen Brodie of Lethen, the lord-lieutenant of Nairn, said 'We never knew that such an important character in our country's history who has been immortalised on canvas was actually a son of Nairnshire and the Highlands..'
Smith's family originally came from Nairn - the seaside holiday resort that was a favourite of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin. His father was Duncan Smith of Howford and his mother was Anne Macpherson (*). He was born at his grandmother's house on April 12, 1780. .. In 1812 he returned to the Highlands, where he married his cousin, Anne Macpherson of Ardersier, daughter of the factor of Cawdor Estate.
They retired to Forres, but Dr. Smith died in 1819 at 39 and was buried at Cawdor cemetery.
(*) This should read Margaret Macpherson. Her sister Anne Macpherson was married to John Macgillivray of Tierfognian and Keppernach)
Interesting about John McArthur in Laggan.
I am particularly interested in Peter McArthur genealogy because he was legal representative for a family of Falconers in Nairnshire in an inheritance case 18th century (his mother was a Falconer). I am trying to work out the different trees that are described. Jane
Hello,
I have been following this thread with great interest because i feel it might help me to make some progress on what has been a sticking point for many years. Your Smith information is really making me hope now! I have a Smith family in Nairn which obviously had definite links with the Grants of Viewfield. William Smith, married to Margaret Forsyth, in Nairn, 1813, was a mason/builder. All of the offspring of this couple had at least one of the Grant family as witnesses at their baptism and their third son, born 1824, was named James Augustus Grant Smith, with J.A. Grant as one of the witnesses.
I have struggled for years to find any further information on William - he died before the 1841 census and therefore there is also no death registration for him. I can find no mention of a burial or any other clue as to his background.
But the connection with the Grants make me believe that his was a family of means and I feel sure there must be some record of his existence somewhere. His wife was born in Duffus, Morayshire but there I also draw a blank, except that he mother was called Jane ( thanks to 1841 census).
There was also a James Smith, architect, named as witness on some family documents - I have wondered if this could be a brother but again, nothing to confirm this.
If anyone can help with this Smith family I should be eternally grateful.
Many thanks,
Jen
