- Robert Pearsall Smith
Robert Pearsall Smith (1827 - 1899) was a lay leader in the
Holiness movement in the United States and theHigher Life movement in Great Britain. His book "Holiness Through Faith" (1879) is one of the foundational works of the Holiness movement. He was also a businessman in thePhiladelphia area, publishing maps and managing a glass factory.Smith was from a long line of influential Quakers, in
Pennsylvania andNew Jersey . He was a descendant of John Smith, who started one of the first insurance companies in Philadelphia and was one of the founders of thePhiladelphia Hospital . He was also a descendant of James Logan, secretary ofWilliam Penn and the founder of the first lending library in America, theLoganian Library .Robert Pearsall Smith was the son of John Jay Smith and Rachel Pearsall.
During the 1840s, Robert’s father was the librarian of the Philadelphia Library Company, which now had oversight of their ancestral library, the Loganian. The library employed the prestigious architect and surveyor,
James Charles Sidney . Sidney also produced maps that Robert published. Many of these maps are now valuable historical artifacts.In 1851 Smith married Hannah Tatum Whitall, a woman who also descended from a line of prominent Quakers in the region. The Smiths settled in
Germantown, Pennsylvania . They were much influenced byMethodist revivalists, and adopted the Wesleyan doctrine ofsanctification . They were also influenced byWilliam E. Boardman , who wrote "The Higher Christian Life" (1859).From 1864 to 1868, Robert and Hannah Smith lived in
Millville, New Jersey . Robert managed Hannah's father's business, the Whitall, Tatum & Company glass factories.William Boardman apparently groomed Robert and Hannah Smith to join the Holiness movement as speakers. From 1873 to 1874 they spoke at various places in England, including Oxford, teaching on the subjects of the "higher life" and "holiness". In 1874 the Smiths traveled to
Germany andSwitzerland , where they preached in several major cities. In 1875 they returned to England and conducted meetings inBrighton . After an unspecified scandal involving Robert, their visit to England came to an abrupt halt.In 1888 the Smith family moved to England when their daughter Mary married an Irish barrister, Frank Costelloe; she later married
Bernard Berenson . There their daughterAlys Pearsall Smith met and married the philosopherBertrand Russell . Their sonLogan Pearsall Smith became an essayist and critic.External links
* [http://www.frontlinemin.org/higherlife.asp Critique of Smith's movement]
* [http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/01-05/01-2.htm Another Critique of the movement]
* [http://www.millville.org/memorial/history/bicentennial/text/35_ware_house.html One of Smith's homes]
* [http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v03/bp03-08.html Article mentioning Smith as a mapmaker]
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