Life
1797-1885 [née Grant]; b. Rothiemurchus, Scotland; m. Col Henry
Smith of Baltiboys, East Co. Wicklow; her dairies kept during 1840-50
incl. such varied matters as the Famine, ‘agrarian crime’, the
New Poor Law, Fr. Mathew’s Temperance Campaign, Lord Milltown’s
fortune squndered through gambling, and the fate of Judy Ryan who ends
in the Work House in 1848 after two marriages with five children; depicts
the reactions of various classes to the Famine including landlord’s
clearances and false relief claims by strong farmers as well as government
ineptitude of various kinds; issued as The Irish Journals of Elizabeth
Smith (1980), The Highland Lady in Ireland (1992), and The
Wicklow World of Elizabeth Smith (1996).
[ top ]
Works
The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840-1850, ed. with introduction
by David Thomson and Moyra McGusty (1980); also The Highland Lady in
Ireland, Journals 1840-50, Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus (Canongate
?1992), 580pp.; Dermot James and Séamus Ó Maithú,
eds., The Wicklow World of Elizabeth Smith 1840-1850 (Dublin: Woodfield
Press 1996).
[ top ]
Criticism
Mathew Stout [on estate of Elizabeth Smith during the Famine] in Chris
Morash and Richard Hayes, eds., Fearful Realities: New Perspectives
on the Famine (Dublin: IAP 1996) [q.pp.].
Brendan Ó Cathaoir, ‘Famine Diary’, Irish Times (20 April 1996).
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)