Henry John Stephen Smith

Henry John Stephen Smith was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 2, 1826. His father, John Smith, was an Irish barrister, who had graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and had afterwards studied at the Temple, London, as a pupil of Henry John Stephen, the editor of Blackstone's Commentaries; hence the given name of the future mathematician. His mother was Mary Murphy, an accomplished and clever Irishwoman, tall and beautiful. Henry was the youngest of four children, and was but two years old when his father died. His mother would have been left in straitened circumstances had she not been successful in claiming a bequest of $10,000 which had been left to her husband but had been disputed. On receiving this money, she migrated to England, and Finally settled in the Isle of Wight.