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 Church of Scotland Ministers B
| Date transcribed | 2011-00-00 | | Transcribed by | Peter Schofield | | Comment | List of Ministers of the Church of Scotland who served in India and South Asia extracted from Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae |
| | Section | India  | | | Volume No. | 7 | | | Page No. | 707 | | | Surname | Smith | | | Christian Name(s) | Thomas | | | Wife 1 Surname | Whyte | | | Wife 1 Christian name(s) | Grace | | | Children to 1st Wife Christian name(s) | David; John; Annie; David Whyte Ewart; William Whyte | | | Father-in-law 1 Surname | Whyte | | | Father-in-law 1 Christian name(s) | David K. | | | Father-in-law remarks | David K. Whyte, paymaster R.N. | | | Body of text | SMITH, THOMAS, born 8th July 1817, eldest son of John S, minister of Symington, Lanarkshire; educated at Symington School and University of Edinburgh (where he took the highest honours in mathematics and natural philosophy); licensed by Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1839; ordained missionary to General Assembly's Institution, Calcutta, 7th March that year. Joined the Free Church in 1843; chaplain to the 42nd Highlanders during the Indian Mutiny, accompanying the regiment on active service; Honorary MA (Edinburgh 1858). In 1859 he returned to Scotland and was minister of Cowgatehead Free Church until 1879; DD (Edinburgh 1867); appointed Professor of Evangelistic Theology, New College, Edinburgh, 1880; elected Moderator of the Free Church 21st May 1891; retired from his Chair in 1893; celebrated the diamond jubilee of his ordination 1899; LLD (Edinburgh 1900); died at Edinburgh 26th May 1906 and buried in Grange Cemetery. In 1840, through an article in the Christian Observer, he devised the plan of the Zenana Mission (not begun until 1854). He was one of the ablest scholars and linguists of his time, with a forte for mathematics which, Lord Kelvin said, ""would unquestionably have raised him to the very highest eminence in that science."" His missionary enthusiasm brought him many friendships in all the Churches, and his influence on the religious and educational life of India was far-reaching and memorable. He was a constant contributor to missionary literature and to Indian journalism, editor of the Calcutta Review, Nos 35-49 (in which he wrote thirty-two articles) and joint-editor of the Calcutta Christian Observer. Portrait in New College, Edinburgh. He married 1839, Grace (died 1886), daughter of David K Whyte, paymaster RN, and had issue - David, died in infancy; John, died in India; Annie; David Whyte Ewart; William Whyte, MA, BD, minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh, born 2nd December 1849, died 1st March 1904. Publications An Elementary Treatise on Plane Geometry according to the Method of Rectilineal Co-ordinates (Edinburgh, 1857); Studies on Pascal [translated from the French of Alexandre Vinet] (Edinburgh, 1859); The English Puritan Divines, 50 vols (1860-6); Keynotes of the Bible (Edinburgh, 1866); Natural Laws (Edinburgh, 1867); The Clementine Homilies [""Ante-Nicene Christian Library,"" xvii](Edinburgh, 1870); Mediaeval Missions [Duff Missionary Lecture] (Edinburgh, 1880); Life of Alexander Duff; DD [Men Worth Remembering] (London, 1883); Modern Missions and Culture [translated from the German of G. Warneck] (1883); History of Protestant Missions from the Reformation [ibid] (1884); Memoir of James Begg, DD, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1885-8); Euclid: his Life and System [World's Epoch-Makers] (Edinburgh, 1902); The Christian's Patrimony. Edited Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Edinburgh, 1881). [The Scotsman, 27th May 1906; Memorial Notice [by Dr George Smith] in Scottish Review (31st May 1906); Dict Nat Biog, 2nd Supp, iii,347.]
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List of Ministers of the Church of Scotland who served in India or South Asia extracted from Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae
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