In 2020 I published a post concerning my discoveries relating to my Sutherland ancestors. This has taken me through the pages of history through the Highlands of Scotland to the advancement of the Sutherland railway, the Disruption of 1843, the Battle of Culloden and down through the Scottish reformation and the ancient Kings of Scotland to William Sutherland, the son in law of Robert the Bruce.
On my mothers side however, there is an entirely different story.
Many years ago I met my grandfather and he was in the Navy during WW2. However, it wasn’t until recent years when I decided to investigate the history I found that my mothers bloodline directly descends from the Smithies of Middleton and a certain Private James Smithies (1787-1868). His father William Smithies (1753-1844) is my sixth great grandfather and his brother Richard Smithies (1780-1856) is my 5th great grandfather.
James Smithies was born in Tongue, Lancashire, in 1787 and in 1804 he ran away from home to enlist and became a Private in the 1st Royal Dragoons between 1807-15. To my amazement I found that James wrote an important memoir of his life and times in the Napoleonic wars. The memoir is published under the title “Adventurous Pursuits of a Peninsular War Waterloo Veteran”. In this book he claims to have met Napoleon.
Details concerning his life are well documented, and he writes that Napoleon “paid a visit to the English soldiers who were his prisoners” and came and spoke to most of them, “but when he offered me his hand” (James Smithies writes) “I cursed him, and (showing him my wounded hand), said that but for him I should not have been hurt in that manner. I refused his proffered hand, and turned my back on him.” James goes on to say that Napoleon seemed to think his dignity had been “insulted” and gave James a “scornful look” that he said he “shall never forget.” (P. 69)
Turning his back on Napoleon was a very daring thing to do.
James Smithies had seen his friends nose and one side of his face cut off in battle and often told his shocking stories around the old pubs in Middleton and he also wrote songs and sang them. His songs are written in his memoir.
These are the horrors of war.
James Smithies was a very strong minded person who fought for what he believed in and it was a very unique moment for me to visit his gravestone and uncover this ancestral connection. James Smithies was my 5th great grand uncle.
Simon Peter Sutherland 