William Smith (Virginia representative)

William Smith was an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century congressman from Virginia.

Born in Chesterfield, Virginia, Smith graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1807. He studied law and relocated to Greenbrier County, Virginia.^[1]

During the War of 1812 Smith served as a captain of artillery, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.^[2]

Smith was first elected to the House of Delegates for the session of 1819/20.^[3]

He was elected a Democratic-Republican, Crawford Republican and Jacksonian to the United States House of Representatives in 1820, serving from 1821 to 1827.^[4]

Smith served a second time in the House of Delegates for the session of 1828/29.^[5]

Smith was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830 from Greenbrier County, serving from a district made up of Monroe, Greenbriar, Bath, Botetourt, Alleghay, Pocahontas and Nicolas. He served there on the Committee on the Executive Department.^[6]

In the 1840s, Smith was an aide to Democratic Governor James McDowell 1843–46, and served as a presidential elector in 1844.^[7]

Smith was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 from Greenbrier County, serving from a district made up of Greenbrier County, from an Assembly district made up of the transmontane Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Fayette, Raleigh, Nicholas and Kanawha Counties.^[8]

In the 1850s, Smith served from Greenbriar in the Virginia Senate in the sessions of 1857/58 and 1859/60. On the eve of the American Civil War, he again served in January 1861.^[9]

Smith was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 53.17% of the vote, defeating fellow Democratic-Republican James Wilson.

• "Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present". bioguide.congress.gov. United States Congress. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
• Pulliam, David Loyd (1901). The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time. John T. West, Richmond. ISBN 978-1-2879-2059-5.
• Swem, Earl Greg (1918). A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918, and of the Constitutional Conventions. David Bottom, Superintendent of Public Printing. ISBN 978-1-3714-6242-0.

• United States Congress. "William Smith (id: S000626)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress