Henry Smyth was a lawyer and political figure in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada. He represented Kent

Kent (Ontario electoral district)

Kent was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1904, 1917 to 1968, and 1979 to 1997. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867...

 in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 from 1882 to 1887 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member.

He was born in Chatham

Chatham, Ontario

Chatham is the largest community in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ontario. Formerly serving as the seat of Kent County, the governments of the former city of Chatham, the county of Kent, and its townships were merged into one entity known as the Municipality of Chatham-Kent in 1998.Located on...

, Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

, the son of William B. Smyth, a native of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, and was educated there and at the Caradoc Academy. In 1862, he married Julia O'Brien. Smyth served as school trustee, town councillor, deputy reeve and reeve; he was also mayor of Chatham from 1869 to 1870 and in 1876. His election in 1882 was overturned in 1883 after an appeal; Smyth won the by-election held in 1884. He was unsuccessful when he ran for reelection in 1887 and 1888.