Augustus Smith of Berkhamsted.

I always baulk at writing a piece to which I can bring very little in the way of “original” content as I tend to think of it as plagiarism of the first order. The piece below is compiled from different sources, and I have glossed over some points of the story and had to infer others. However, that having been said, here we go. I’ll list my sources at the end.

EDIT May 14, 2024: I went live with this post on April 25, 2024, without any photographs but I have now added photographic content.

A School memory.
In 1970 I had the utmost pleasure to be amongst the first intake of students at The Augustus Smith School in Berkhamsted, the first of my hometown’s new Middle Schools. The school was officially opened in 1971, some time after we’d settled in and scuffed the new flooring, by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science, The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher MP. Fresh out of Primary School we had three years of, mostly fun, at The Augustus Smith School or TASS as it became known (nothing to do with the Russians, as far as I knew anyway), before moving up to the “Big School” – Ashlyns, which was about half a kilometre away across two fields.

As pupils of TASS, we were carted off on a school field trip to spend a week camping on Garrison Hill at the western end of St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly. The Isles of Scilly are a group of small islands and rocks, around 140 in all, about 28 miles southwest of Lands End. Only five of the islands are inhabited: St. Mary’s, St. Martins, Tresco, Bryher, St. Agnes, and Gugh. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you just counted six names there and that’s because St. Agnes is connected to Gugh, by a sandbar so for a lot of the time you could refer to the two as one island but given a high tide the sandbar is covered and Gugh becomes a separate island.

The place where we were camping is called Garrison Hill, “garrison” because of the fortifications built there at the end of 16th century in the wake of the Spanish Armada. Tents were provided for us, but we had to supply our own sleeping bags. As a family we didn’t own such an exotic item as a sleeping bag, but the school ran a scheme whereby we could buy discounted sleeping bags. I have this memory, look I’m even plagiarising my own work now (Scilly sods!), of a foggy morning when we lay there in our tents, three to a tent as I recall, listening to a navigation buoy with a bell on it randomly ringing and dinging and the foghorns of two nearby lighthouses blaring out their warnings.

Augustus Smith of Berkhamsted.
So why The Isles of Scilly and who was Augustus Smith?
Well, I’m glad you asked me.
Born in 1804 Augustus John Smith was the eldest son of James Smith and his second wife. James Smith was part of a wealthy banking and property investment family from Nottingham. James and his wife Mary moved south and established themselves as an influential and very wealthy family in Berkhamsted Hertfordshire where they bought Ashlyns Hall as their family home. Augustus attended Harrow School and later Christ’s Church College, Oxford, graduating with a Batchelor of Arts degree in 1826.

As a well-to-do young man who had no need of a profession to pay the bills, as it were, Augustus took an interest in and got himself involved in local matters with a view to bucking “the system” and trying to make things better for his fellow townsfolk. The majority of the population of Berkhamsted at the time worked for or relied on farming, working on or for the local farms, many of them living in poverty.

Amongst other things, and I’m not going to list all that he was involved with here, Augustus became aware of the deplorable state of education available to the children of Berkhamsted. Smith was convinced that it was only by providing a decent education to the children of the town that those children could be released from the cycle of poverty in which they were caught. Most children simply didn’t go to school and as soon as they were old enough to do so they began to learn the ways of the countryside, plaiting straw and other such bucolic endeavours to prepare them for a life of toil on the same farms that their parents worked on, when such work was available that is as farm work for casual labourers is seasonal.

In the town there was a charitable school, a so-called Blue Coat School which had an intake of only thirty pupils, 20 boys and 10 girls. This school was founded in 1729 by Thomas Bourne Esq. a rich merchant from Camberwell who had in his will left a bequest to set-up Bourne’s Educational Foundation whose prime objective was to open a school and provide bursaries and scholarships for local children. Bourne wasn’t a resident, but his sister lived in Berkhamsted, and he used to visit her there.

The other major school in Berkhamsted was a grammar school which had been founded in 1541 by an old Berkhamsted boy, John Incent, who was at the time Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. By Smith’s time the grammar school had fallen upon hard times and had been without pupils for almost a hundred years, there were however two members of staff still drawing salaries.

There was an ongoing lawsuit in the Court of Chancery, a now defunct English Civil court, to decide what to do with, that is to say, who should get their hands on the grammar school’s surplus income before the school was wound-up. In 1830 Augustus brought in a countersuit in an effort to keep the school open and functioning as a school to provide an education for local children. The countersuit dragged on for many years.

In the meantime, Augustus took it upon himself to establish a number of new schools in the town, paid for out of his own pocket. These schools were to be non-denominational parish schools open to boys and girls of all or indeed no religious persuasions. Half of the (eight hour) school day would be reserved for traditional schoolwork such as reading, writing, and arithmetic – all the usual subjects, and the other half of the day would be given over to learning some sort of useful industry.

At first there were notes of approval from the local intelligentsia no doubt because this was all to be paid for by Smith, but before long there were cries of disapproval. The rectors of St. Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted and St. Mary’s Church Northchurch (a village to the northwest of Berkhamsted) joined with others in condemnation of Smiths principles. Mainly because Smith was willing to educate children of all denominations, not just Church of England.

The two rectors combined their forces to start a church school of their own and enrolled the wealthiest of their parishioners to support them, support that Smith had hoped would go towards his schools so Smith had to resort seeking a grant from the British and Foreign School Society. Smith’s schools flourished and in 1870 in the wake of the Elementary Education Act, they were taken over as Board Schools. No, not boarding schools, these were the first of the state schools and were run by a board, a public body which administered the school.

But back to the 1830’s. The grammar school suit and countersuit were still ongoing and in 1837 Smith and the parish overseer brought in a new case to obtain an Act of Parliament for the regulation of the school. Smith’s persistence paid off and in 1841 the school was finally reopened with a new board of governors and an up-to-date curriculum.

That Grammar School (now Berkhamsted School), reopened by dint of Smith’s perspicacity, resolve, and at no little cost to him personally, is still open and in the words of their website; “…offering high quality education and care for boys and girls aged 5 months to 18 years.” Although if you do look at their website, you’ll find no mention of Augustus Smith and the huge debt of gratitude that the school owes him.

Although Smith had faced much opposition from the great, good, and landed gentry of the town, the majority of Berkhamstedians supported Smith’s various initiatives. The following statement is attributed to an unknown Berkhamsted resident.

“Too much honour cannot be given to Mr Smith and his colleagues for the part they took in founding and carrying on of those schools for nearly forty years, where some of the best business-men in the town received their education, unfettered and unbiased by religious dogmas.”

That then was the legacy of Augustus Smith in the history of Berkhamsted’s educational institutions but regarding Berkhamsted, the best is arguably still to come but for now let’s turn our attention to The Isles of Scilly.

Island Life.
Let’s go back to 1831. Always on the lookout for something new and interesting to be involved with, Smith heard in 1831 that the Duke of Leeds in his capacity as the Governor of The Isles of Scilly was not going to renew his lease of the islands. It was known to Smith that the islanders were mostly living in poverty, and it seemed to him as an ideal case to get involved in to try and make the islanders lives better. Smith entered into negotiations with the Duchy of Cornwall who owned the islands but before any negotiations could be concluded, the Commissioners of H.M. woods and forests claimed the islands as Crown Property and Smith withdrew his bid.

Smith then set his sights on The Aran Islands which lie off of the west coast of Ireland in Galway Bay. Again, much taken by the plight of the islanders and with a view to bettering their lot, Smith entered into negotiations to lease those islands, but that scheme too fell through.

By 1834, the Duchy of Cornwall after a counter claim, had established its rights to The Isles of Scilly and they approached Smith to ask if he was still interested in becoming the lessee of the islands. Smith agreed and for a down payment of £20,000 and an annual rent of £40 he undertook the lease for 99 years. Smith moved to Scilly in 1835 and became the self-styled Lord Proprietor of The Isles of Scilly. He had picked a site on the island of Tresco to build himself a house which was to become his main residence, he being the first lessee that had actually lived on the islands.

In the meantime, Smith lived in rented accommodation on the island of St. Mary’s and began to put his plans for reform into action. The building took three years to complete, and Smith employed local labourers to do the job. When finished the house was named Tresco Abbey as nearby there were the grounds and a few ruined walls of the 12th century Benedictine priory of St Nicholas which had once been an outpost of Tavistock Abbey. The priory was referred to locally Tresco Abbey.

The Abbey had fallen into disuse long before Henry VIII could dissolve it. Smith encircled the Abbey grounds with stone walls and created a sheltered garden in which to indulge his passion for exotic plants, many of which were brought back for him from all parts of the globe by seafarers, the mild almost subtropical climate of the Scillies being ideal for such plants to flourish.

The house and gardens still survive today, the house is owned by the Dorrien-Smith family, descendants of Augustus Smith. The gardens are the world famous Tresco Abbey Gardens one of the finest sub-tropical flora collections in the Northern Hemisphere.

When it came to the interests of the islanders, Smith set about reforming life for the residents of Scilly. His methods and machinations were almost universally resented at first by the islanders, but Smith persevered and eventually all, but the most begrudging residents of the Scillies had to admit that things were better.

Using his own money Smith built a new, bigger quay for Hugh Town, the main town on St. Mary’s, the biggest island of the archipelago, which allowed bigger vessels to dock there. The Church in Hugh Town which had been promised by the King, but which had so far not been built, was completed, again on Smith’s initiative and funded by his good will and deep pockets.

Smith, once again with an eye towards education, set up schools on the islands, dipping again into his own pocket to do so, and made it compulsory, for such were his powers as Lord Proprietor, for children to attend school. A move that would be quite some years before it was emulated on the mainland.

The system of farming of the island was ripe for reform. When a farmer died, his lands were divided between the heirs, thus creating more but smaller undertakings. Smith decreed that only the elder child could inherit their father’s lands, the other progeny would have to make their own way in the world by learning a trade, entering into service, or going to sea. This move was very unpopular but eventually it brought about the benefits that Smith had hoped for. The reforms that Smith inflicted upon the islanders, for their own good, were many and varied and eventually life on the islands was vastly improved.

Although Smith now lived most of the year in his house on Tresco he kept tabs on the goings on in Berkhamsted, Smith had inherited the family home Ashlyns Hall and members of his family still lived locally so he travelled back to Berkhamsted frequently, in fact between the years of 1834 and 1843 he was also one of the churchwardens of St. Peter’s Church in Berkhamsted. As the years passed the journey from Scilly to Berkhamsted became progressively easier, once you had gotten to the mainland that is. In the early days, the journey from Penzance to Berkhamsted had to be made by carriage and horses. The London to Birmingham railway had opened in 1838 connecting Berkhamsted to London and the Great Western Railway had been extending westward from London so that by the 1850’s it was possible to travel by train from Penzance to London and then from London to Berkhamsted.

To venge the common right.
There has been a misconception that common land is not owned by anyone but is there for the use of the commoners, that is to say, for the use of you and me. Well, as nice as that idea is, it’s sadly untrue. All common land is owned by somebody or some society or organisation and the same was true in Augustus Smith’s day. What makes common land “common” is the right that commoners have to use the land. Rights of common included using the land as pasture for animals and collecting wood, bracken, gorse, and heather etc. for various uses.

In the mid 1800’s there were murmurings in Parliament about enacting legislation to turn over some common land to the commoners. Lord Brownlow who lived in Ashridge House on the Ashridge Estate, also owned Berkhamsted Common which abutted the Estate. To the south of the common land was Berkhamsted Castle Estate which had been owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, as was the castle itself – another link between Berkhamsted and Cornwall, but had latterly been acquired by Lord Brownlow, thus the common land was sandwiched between two tracts of privately owned land.

The residents of Berkhamsted and surrounding local villages had rights of common to use the common land as they had for countless years. Lord Brownlow, fearful of losing the common land that he owned to the commoners, decided to act proactively and put up fences thus preventing the common folk from using the enclosed common land. Brownlow also set his lackeys about trying to “buy” the rights of common from the locals whereby for a pittance the unsuspecting commoners would relinquish their rights to use the common.

Augustus Smith was informed of Lord Brownlow’s plans by his brother Algenon and instigated legal proceedings against Lord Brownlow which for a time stalled any work being done to deprive the commoners from their common. From his home on Tresco, Smith had been in correspondence with Brownlow’s solicitors and his own legal representatives and the newly formed Commons Preservation Society trying to come to some agreeable course of action, but none was found.

In February 1866 Brownlow started to erect iron railings and fenced off 600 acres (about 242.8 hectares in new money, although one source I found says it was only 434 acres), of heretofore common land. As the land he appropriated was sandwiched between two tracts of his own land which wasn’t common land, there was only the need to erect two fences across the common, one at each end of the seized land stretching between those lands that were already his. Diplomacy had not worked and by March, Smith had devised a plan in association with the Commons Preservation Society and a team of 120 workmen armed with crowbars, hammers and chisels was assembled at Euston Station. Each man was given a ticket and told only that there was some work to do, and then they boarded a specially chartered train which conveyed the men to Tring Station where they alighted at 01:30 in the morning and walked the three miles (4.8 km) back to Berkhamsted Common.

In the early hours of Tuesday 6th March 1866, the order was given to tear down the iron railings and the workmen set to. By 07:00 that morning the entirety of the fencing was down, and the railings stacked in piles along the line of where the fences had been across the common. Smith who had travelled up to London the previous day, arrived in Berkhamsted at 09:00 and was driven up to the common to see the work done and to ensure that all the fences were indeed down. By the afternoon, news of the deed had reached the wider locality and folk from all stations in life flocked to the common to see for themselves that the common was once again open.

There was a protracted legal battle between Brownlow and Smith. In 1867 Lord Brownlow died of tuberculosis and the legal case was taken up by his brother but in 1870 the lawsuit was eventually settled in favour of Smith. Upon the news of the legal victory reaching Berkhamsted, the church bells were rung in celebration. The legal costs borne by Smith amounted to around £3,000 and were all once again paid from his personal fortune.

A legacy forgotten?
Such then was the impact that Agustus Smith has on Berkhamsted and The Isles of Scilly. No wonder then that in 1970, Berkhamsted’s new middle school should be named after him. Smith’s actions in facilitating the so-called Battle of Berkhamsted Common were instrumental in forming the Open Spaces Society (formerly the Commons Preservation Society) and the National Trust. Smith’s visionary ideas about education were ahead of their time.

Why is it then that if you visit Berkhamsted, nearly all mention of Augustus Smith seems to have been forgotten?

As I wrote at the beginning of this article, I used to go to The Augustus Smith School, the first of Berkhamsted’s Middle Schools. The second middle school was at the “other end” of town, Berkhamsted being long and thin, well, longer that it is wide. That second middle school was called The Thomas Bourne School, Bourne you will remember was the chap who founded the charity school mentioned earlier.

The County Council in its wisdom decided in 1988 to sell off the site of the Thomas Bourne School and that school was amalgamated with The Augustus Smith School but under a new name, The Thomas Coram School. Thomas Coram was born in Lyme Regis and living part of his life in the city of Taunton in Bristol County, Massachusetts, was a mariner, a sea captain and his life story is a fascinating one but not the subject of this piece. The salient point is that in the 1740’s Corum established The Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. It was an orphanage, a children’s home for the many foundlings or abandoned children to be found on the streets of London.

The Hospital was initially based in Hatton Garden, London but was later moved to a purpose-built property in Bloomsbury and the name was changed to The Foundling Hospital. In the 1920’s the Foundling Hospital decided to move out into the countryside where it was hoped that it would be healthier for the children. A site was chosen in Berkhamsted and in 1935 the new buildings were opened. In the 1950’s the buildings were sold to Hertfordshire County Council for use as a school, Ashlyns School named after the nearby Ashlyns House, Augustus Smith’s childhood home.

So, with the renaming of The Augustus Smith School, Berkhamsted’s most visible link to Augustus Smith disappeared. Go looking for traces of him in the town today and you will find very little. Berkhamsted School, the failing grammar school that Smith fought to stop being closed, houses two images of Augustus Smith, a painted portrait of him and a photograph of him wearing his Masonic regalia – Smith was very involved with Freemasonry and for a while he was the Provincial Grand Master for Cornwall. These two pictures though, being in a school, are not exactly on public display.

The handwritten notes on the photograph read:

“Under whose inspiration and guidance Berkhamsted School was restarted on its new and glorious career after 100 years of litigation and obscurity”
Augustus Smith Esq- M.P. for Truro	Ashlyns Hall and Tresco Abbey Isles of Scilly.

Yes, Something I omitted from the above was the fact that Augustus, along with all the other things that he was involved with, also found time to be the MP for Truro between 1857 and 1865. I actually omitted quite a lot whilst trying to stick to the narrative about Berkhamsted and The Isles of Scilly. Amongst other things, as well as his activities in the Freemasons, Smith served as president of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall and president of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.

Smith is mentioned on the list of churchwardens and also on The Smith-Dorrien Monument in St. Peter’s Church Berkhamsted. This monument to primarily to Mary Isabella Smith, Augustus Smith’s mother but also has inscriptions to other members of the family, including Augustus John Smith.

Augustus’s younger brother Robert Algernon Smith took the surname of his mother-in-law when he married becoming Robert Algernon Smith-Dorien and the Smith-Dorien family still own and live on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly.

On the day that I visited St. Peter’s Church I think that they had been having a bit of a re-shuffle, hence the chairs and other paraphernalia in front of the monument.

In Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted, there is a grand but sadly weather-beaten commemoration stone which was erected to commemorate the Countess of Bridgewater’s gift of land to the parish church of St. Peter’s to establish a new cemetery.

The Countess of Bridgewater Commemoration Stone is another one of the few places in Berkhamsted with a mention of Augustus Smith who is cited in his capacity of churchwarden, one line from the bottom of the stone.

Sadly, parts of the inscription are becoming illegible and whilst there is a transcription on the Rectory Lane Cemetery website, I took it upon myself to produce an image of the stone so that it can all be read.

It’s not a 100% accurate representation, the typeface isn’t a completely accurate match and I’m not so much of a masochist that I wanted to draw all the letters and numerals by hand, but it is I think, “close enough” and it enables you to read all the inscriptions on the stone. I had to get a bit creative in the subscriptions section, the stonemason switched to a different style for the letter “A”, but I think I’ve captured the essence of the thing.

There is also a rather recent building on Berkhamsted High Street called Augustus Smith House which rather aptly is part of a social housing initiative, council houses as we used to call them. Augustus Smith House is part of a building complex, the other part being called Thomas Bourne House. Other than that, Berkhamsted seems to have largely forgotten one of its most effective and elusive benefactors which I think is somewhat of a shame.

So, there you are, the legacy of Augustus Smith, almost forgotten in his home town.

I don’t claim that any of the historical content here, apart from my school memories, is in any way my original work, as I wrote at the beginning, I’ve put this together from various different sources, many of which are on the internet, in an effort to present the story without going into too much of the small detail. Smith’s life story is far more interesting and involved than I’ve gone into here but hopefully this gives an overall picture of his dealings on The Isles of Scilly and in Berkhamsted.

As a footnote, two weeks after the Battle of Berkhamsted Common, an anonymous poem entitled “Lay of Modern England” appeared in Punch magazine. The poem was a parody of “Horatius at the Bridge (a Lay made about the Year of the City CCCLX)” by Thomas Macaulay.

A few poetic liberties were taken as Smith wasn’t actually there whilst the railings were being pulled down but I for one think that it’s a splendid poem. Note that the spelling of Berkhamsted is different, there are around fifty recorded ways of spelling the town’s name. Hazell and Paxton both mentioned in the following poem worked in some capacity for Lord Brownlow and both have roads named after them in Berkhamsted. Smith is not accorded any such recognition. On another tack, have a Google at Jack Sheppard Willesden, there’s another fascinating story.

Lay of Modern England.
(Punch Magazine, March 24th, 1866)

AUGUSTUS SMITH, of Scilly,
By Piper’s Hole he swore
That the proud Lord of Brownlow
Should keep the waste no more.
By Piper’s Hole he swore it.
And named a trysting night,
And bade his myrmidons ride forth,
By special train from London’s north,
To venge the Common Right.

Where on the street of Drummond
Four Doric columns frown,
Where the gigantic STEPHENSON
On his own line looks down.
The stalwart navvies gathered,
From lodgings far and near;
Strong were the crowbars in their hands,
Stronger their hope for beer.

Loured the foul London gaslights,
And made the gloom more deep.
The million-peopled city’s sons
Were in their early sleep,
When from the Euston Station
Glided the special train
That bore the force that went to win
Berkhampstead’s waste again.

And sternly rode each navvy,
The crowbar in his gripe,
And scornful of the snob-made law,
A fire in every pipe;
They rode in solemn silence,
And not a navvy knew,
The leader whom he went to serve,
The work he went to do.

Thine old Red Cap, O Mother!
That train went rushing by,
Where Willesden bears JACK SHEPPARD’S name
In holiest memory.
Where points to Heaven the spire
On Harrow’s haunted Hill,
Where Pinner’s perky stockbrokers
In cockney nests were still.

Through Bushey and through Watford,
And on to wild Boxmoor
That special train its weighty freight
Of rugged champions bore.
On, the steam-demon bore them,
Nor flagged upon the wing,
Until he lighted with his load
At Baptist-chapelled Tring.

Then spoke a voice accustomed
To bid strong men obey:
I know full well whose voice it was:
His name I may not say.
“This way,” was all He uttered,
As brief was their reply,
The navvy wastes few idle words—
The navvies grunted “Ay.”

They marched three miles in silence,
The road was dark and drear,
But thought upheld the navvy’s heart:
The pleasant thought of beer.
They reached Berkhampstead Common,
Or that which had been one,
Until by Ashridge’s proud Lord
The feudal deed was done.

There, miles of iron railing
Scowled grimly in the dark,
Making what once was Common,
The Lord of Brownlow’s Park:
His rights that Lord asserted,
Rights which they hold a myth,
The bold Berkhampstead Commoners,
Led by AUGUSTUS SMITH.

Spoke out the nameless Leader,
“That Railing must go down.”
Then firmer grasped the crowbar
Those hands so strong and brown,
They march against the railing,
They lay the crowbars low,
And down and down for many a yard
The costly railings go.

Strong are the navvies’ muscles,
The navvies work like men:
Where was the Lord of Brownlow,
Where was brave PAXTON then?
Where was the valiant GROVER,
The gallant STOCKEN where,
And where was he who smokes the hams,
And makes the Earl his care?

Yes, where was grocer HAZELL,
Who raised the duteous song:
“As how a Lord like Brownlow’s Lord
Could never do what’s wrong?”
The Earl and all his champions
Were sleeping far away,
And ere the morn, upon the gorse
Three miles of railing lay.

“Hurrah!” the navvies shouted:
In sight a horseman glides:
See on his cob, with bob, bob, bob,
The duteous HAZELL rides:
To do his Lordship service
Comes riding through the mirk,
And bids the navvies let him know
Who brought them to their work.

Answer the stalwart navvies,
Who smoke the ham-smoker’s game,
“Behold’st thou, HAZELL, yon canal;
Would’st like to swim the same?
If not, with beer this instant
Thyself and cob redeem,”
And round him as they spoke, they drew,
And edged him near the stream.

So down went BROWNLOW’S railings,
And down went HAZELL’S beer,
And from the fathering crowd upgoes
One loud and lusty cheer.
For carriage, gig, and dog-cart
Come rushing on the scene,
And all Berkhampstead hastes to see
Where BROWNLOW’S rails had been.

And husbands, wives, and children,
Went, strolling through the gorse,
And cried, “We’ve got our own again,
Thanks to your friendly force.”
They cut green little morsels
As memories of the Band,
Whose lusty arms and iron bars
Had freed the Common hind.

Bold was the deed and English
The Commoners have done,
Let’s hope the law of England, too,
Will smile upon their fun.
For our few remaining Commons
Must not be seized or sold.
Nor Lords forget they do not live
In the bad days of old.

Sources:
Augustus Smith of Scilly by Elisabeth Inglis-Jones.
Published by Faber and Faber Ltd. in 1969.  ISBN: 0571 08695.

Augustus John Smith Emperor & King of Scilly.
Published by Shipwreck & Marine in 2013.  ISBN: 978 095239 718 2.

As the internet seems to be a dynamic thing it’s possible that some of these URLs may in time be changed or disappear altogether but any concerted searching on Google or otherwise will I’m sure bring back some sort of result.

Jane Austen’s London (janeaustenslondon.com)
The Perfect Regency Hero? Defender of the Common Man? The Saviour of the Scillies ? Pioneering Plant Collector? Or Sexual Predator? Who was Augustus Smith?

CampaignerKate (campaignerkate.wordpress.com)
To Venge The Common Right

Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society (berkhamsted-history.org.uk)
Augustus Smith (1804-1872) – local benefactor and benevolent despot?

Rectory Lane Cemetery (rectorylanecemetery.org.uk)
Rectory Lane Cemetery

The Parish Church of St. Peter, Great Berkhamsted (stpetersberkhamsted.org.uk)
St. Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 (en.m.wikisource.org)
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Augustus John

Living Magazines (livingmags.info)
A Life Well Lived

Genealogy in Hertfordshire (hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk)
Augustus Smith and Berkhamsted Common

Where in the world is Riccardo? (richedwardsimagery.wordpress.com)
Tresco Abbey Garden, Tresco Island, Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom

Tresco Island (tresco.co.uk)
History of Tresco

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