SMITH, Charles (1635-1706)

Smith succeeded to the peerage on the death of his brother, Francis Smith. A Catholic who was already advanced in years, he was unable to take his seat in the House, and he appears to have exercised little political influence during his brief tenure of the title. On his succession to the peerage he came into the majority of the Warwickshire estates, with the exception of Shottery and Baginton, but these appear to have been seriously depleted before he inherited the barony. Of the remaining family lands, the 2nd baron had left the manor of Ashby Folville in Leicestershire to his widow, Anne, dowager Lady Carrington. VCH Leics. ii. 66.

Carrington appears to have suffered from poor health and within a year of inheriting complained of pains in his head and stomach. W.A. Copinger, History and Records of the Smith-Carrington Family, 335-6. In 1704 he leased a number of his manors in Shropshire and Warwickshire, and the same year he was present as a witness at the select committee deliberating on Lister’s estate bill. TNA, C103/165; HMC Lords, n.s. vi. 240. He died two years later, in May 1706. In his will, drawn up a few days previously, he left a number of small bequests to relatives including his nephew, William Hungate, and niece, Elizabeth Smalley, totalling a mere £40 in addition to confirming the payment of his servants’ wages for a year. Hungate, Elizabeth Barnes and a cousin, Henry Eyre, were nominated joint executors. Nichols makes mention of a daughter, who is said to have lived until 1754, but no mention is made of her in the will. The remainder of Carrington’s estates passed to his sister-in-law, Anne, dowager Lady Carrington, and his cousin, Francis Smith of Aston. Nichols, iii. 28. The existence of a daughter as heir general might explain why no attempt was made by Francis Smith to claim the barony. In the absence of a direct male heir, the peerage became extinct.