Matthew Smith (spy)

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Matthew Smith (b. c. 1665; d. before 1723?) was a 17th century spy and the author of "Memoirs of Secret Service", which was published in London in 1699. "Memoirs of Secret Service" is seen as the prototype of the literary genre of spy autobiographies and there is some controversy as to whether Smith wrote the book or whether his school friend and author Tom Brown did. Smith was educated at Adams Grammar School at the same time as the Jacobite conspirator Robert Charnock. He was the nephew of Sir William Perkins who first employed him as spy. He later worked in the service of the Earl of Monmouth during the reign of William III and implicated the Duke of Shrewsbury in a letter to Monmouth. The allegation in the letter being that Duke of Shrewsbury, one of William III's minister had been aware of a Jacobite plot to assassinate the King. The Earl of Monmouth used this information in an attempt to ruin the Duke of Shrewsbury, this however backfired and caused the Earl of Monmouth to spend a short while in the Tower of London. As a result of these allegations, Smith was taken from his lodgings in London and interviewed at the House of Lords.

[edit] References

• Matthew Smith (HTML). Oxford Biography Index entry. Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2007-12-25.
• Smith, Matthew (1699). Memoirs of Secret Service. London: Printed for A. Baldwin. OCLC: 13779851. 
• Macauley, Thomas Babington (1849). A History of England from the Accession of James II. Leipzig: Tauchnitz. OCLC: 178830637.