Michael Smith (judge)

Sir Michael Smith, 1st Baronet, of Tuam (1740–1809) was an Irish judge. He was the founder of a judicial dynasty, some of whose members were noted for eccentricity. He was also the first of the Cusack-Smith baronets.

He was born at Newtown, County Offaly, the son of William Smith (died 1747) and his wife Hester Lynch of Galway. The Smith family had come to Ireland from Yorkshire in the seventeenth century, and acquired substantial property in the Irish Midlands. Michael revered the memory of his father, who died when his son was only seven, and later composed a eulogy which was inscribed on his father's tombstone. He graduated from the University of Dublin, and was called to the Bar in 1769. He was elected member of the Irish House of Commons for Randalstown in 1783, and was noted for his eloquence in debate.

He was raised to the Bench as a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1793; in 1801 he became Master of the Rolls in Ireland, retiring in 1806. The Mastership of the Rolls had long been notorious as a sinecure for politicians, many of whom had no legal qualifications whatever. The appointment of Smith, a lawyer of undoubted ability, is thought to have been the result of a conscious policy of making the Mastership a full-time and responsible judicial office; the policy was largely successful.

His first marriage to Maryanne Cusack, daughter of James Cusack of Ballyronan, County Wicklow, was an interesting one for an ambitious young lawyer as Maryanne was an open and devout Roman Catholic. They had two children, William and Angelina. Their son Sir William Cusack-Smith, 2nd Baronet followed his father into the law and as a Baron of the Exchequer. His appointment caused some disquiet, both because he was only 35 years old, and because he was already showing marked signs of eccentricity. William's second son Thomas Berry Cusack Smith continued the family traditions of judicial eminence and eccentricity: like his grandfather he was Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and like his father he was notably eccentric. William's sister Angelina married twice but had no issue.

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