Josiah Smith was a clergyman in colonial South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 who championed the causes of the evangelical style of the Great Awakening

First Great Awakening

The First Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal...

 and later American independence.

Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 into a prominent family. His grandfather, Thomas

Thomas Smith (politician)

Thomas Smith was the governor of colonial South Carolina from 1693 to 1694, a planter, a merchant and a surgeon. He arrived in Charles Town in 1684 with his first wife Barbara Atkins and his sons Thomas and George. He was a Cacique by 1690 and was made Landgrave by the Lords Proprietors on 13 May...

, was a landgrave

Landgrave

Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

 and governor of the province of South Carolina. He spent most of his childhood in Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 with his father. Josiah graduated from Harvard in 1725. He received his ordination in 1726, returned to Charleston, and was successively pastor of Presbyterian churches in Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

, Cainhoy, and Charleston, South Carolina. In 1730, he became involved in a theological dispute with Rev. Hugh Fisher of Dorchester, South Carolina

Dorchester, South Carolina

Dorchester was a town in South Carolina. Situated on the Ashley River around from Charleston, it was founded in February 1696 by the followers of Reverend Joseph Lord from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who gave it the same name of the town whence they had emigrated, which was in turn named after the...

 on the subject of subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith

Westminster Confession of Faith

The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition. Although drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly, largely of the Church of England, it became and remains the 'subordinate standard' of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and has been...

 as well as the right of the individual to private judgment. Both Smith and Fisher published sermons concerning the dispute. In 1740, he championed the cause of George Whitefield

George Whitefield

George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...

 and invited him to preach from his pulpit after he was refused admission to the local Episcopalian church. In 1749, he had a stroke which left him unable to speak well; however, he continued to write and publish sermons.

Rev. Smith sided with the rebelling colonists in the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

. During the Siege of Charleston

Siege of Charleston

The Siege of Charleston was one of the major battles which took place towards the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the British began to shift their strategic focus towards the American Southern Colonies. After about six weeks of siege, Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln...

, he was taken as a prisoner of war. He was later paroled, but ordered to Philadelphia where he died.

Works

• Human Impositions Proved Unscriptural Or, The Divine Right of Private Judgment (1729)
• Solomon's Caution Against the Cup (1730)
• The Divine Right of Private Judgment Vindicated (1730)
• No New Thing to Be Slandered (1730)