Thomas Smith (Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District)

Thomas Smith (21 March 1763 – 30 July 1831) was an English Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District from 1821 to 1831.

He was born on 21 March 1763, the son of James Smith of the Brooms, near Lanchester, County Durham. Thomas was ordained to the priesthood in 1788 by Louis-François-Marc Hilaire de Conzié, Bishop of Arras. He was appointed coadjutor to William Gibson, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, the Briefs for the coadjutorship and titular see of Bolina were dated on 15 May 1807. However, the mandate for his consecration was lost in transmission to England, and a fresh mandate was applied for in July 1808. He was consecrated titular bishop of Bolina at St. Edmund's College, Ware by Bishop William Poynter on 10 March 1810, attended by bishops Gibson and Collingridge as co-consecrators. On the death of Bishop Gibson on 2 June 1821, Bishop Smith automatically succeeded as Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District.

After ten years and in poor health, he wrote on 5 July 1831 to Cardinal Lorenzo Litta, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, asking to resign his charge of the Northern District, but before it was granted Bishop Smith died at Ushaw College on 30 July 1831, aged 68. He was buried in the grounds of Ushaw College on 2 August 1831.

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