Francis Smith

Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith (13 February 1819 – 17 January 1909) was an Australian lawyer, judge and politician, who served as the fourth Premier of Tasmania from 12 May 1857 until 1 November 1860. Early life: West Indies Smith was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His mother, Marie Josephine Villeneuve (? – 4 December 1893), was of African descent but nothing more is known about her parents. Smith would acknowledge his mother's ancestry by adopting her surname in 1884. While his mother was a resident of Port-au-Prince, his father was recorded as ‘Sir (sic) Francis Smith, foreign merchant in this town’. He ‘declared being the natural father of the child…’ Francis Smith senior (5 November 1787– 8 September 1855) was born in Nevis, the son of the ships’ carpenter Francis Smith (? – January 1790) and his common-law wife Amelia Brodbelt (? – May 1817). Described as a ‘mulatto’, in March 1765 Amelia Brodbelt had been freed from enslavement by Frances Brodbelt of Nevis. Frances was the unmarried sister of the Nevis planter James Brodbelt who was Amelia Brodbelt’s father. Throughout her life, Amelia was known as a ‘free coloured woman’.