Charles Loraine Smith

Charles Loraine Smith or Charles Loraine was a sportsman, artist and politician. He inherited his family seat in Enderby, Leicestershire while still a boy. He was a keen horseman and his paintings of animals are well regarded. He painted both parodies and more serious subjects. He served in the British parliament, was mentioned in a divorce case, met the pope and rose to be a High Sheriff of Leicestershire.

Life
Charles Loraine was born in 1751. His father was Sir Charles Loraine, the 3rd baronet of Kirk Harle, and his family's seat became Enderby Hall near Leicester when he gained an inheritance from his great uncle Richard Smith of Enderby. He took his great-uncle's name by an act of Parliament in 1762 whilst still a boy. Loraine attended Eton College and Christ's College, Cambridge.

Smith eloped with Frances Carpenter, Countess of Tyrconnel. This elopement was cited in the divorce of the Earl and Countess of Tyconnel in 1777.

When Smith was in Florence he posed for a painting by Johann Zoffany of the Tribuna of the Uffizi. Smith is shown in a group with Zoffany, who is showing a painting by Raphael now called the Niccolini-Cowper Madonna after Earl Cowper, who is also in the group. Zoffany's painting was a commission for Queen Charlotte, and Zoffany had decided to include quite a few British people who lived in or who were visiting Florence. Smith stood as a member of Parliament just once in 1784 for Leicester. He supported Pitt the Younger's plans for reform, and he gave a number of speeches on the subjects of India, Canada and against the receipts tax and the slave trade.

Smith and his wife Elizabeth's first child, Charles Crayle, was born in 1782 and died young. In 1783 Smith became the High Sheriff of Leicestershire. His other child was Loraine Smith born in 1784. That same year Smith sold the estate at Oddington which had been left to his wife by Crayle Crayle in 1780.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024