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Philip Sydney Smyth (14 March 1715 – 29 April 1787[1]) was a Church of Ireland clergyman and fourth Viscount Strangford in the Peerage of Ireland.[2] He succeeded to the viscountcy on 8 September 1724.[1]
Ecclesiastical
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.[3] King George II appointed him Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin in 1746 but the chapter successfully argued that the Crown was not the patron, and he was dispossessed.[4] He was successively Prebendary of Killaspugmullane in Cork Cathedral;[5] Precentor of Elphin (1746–52);[6] Dean of Derry (1752–69);[7] and Archdeacon of Derry[8] (1769–74).[9][2][10]
Political
He sat in the Irish House of Lords until 1784, when he was excluded by Act of Parliament after being tried and convicted of corruption for soliciting a bribe of £200 from the applicant in a court case that was pending before the House.[11][12] The scandal was exacerbated by the fact that it came less than two years after the Irish Lords had regained final appellate jurisdiction from the British House of Lords.[13]
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In 1741 Strangford married Mary, daughter of Anthony Jephson, MP for Mallow and his second wife Hannah Rogerson. They had six children: Mary-Anne (1745–1823) and Anne-Philippa (1749–1830), both unmarried; Robert, Philip, and Frances, who all died young; and finally Lionel (1753–1801), who also took holy orders before succeeding as 5th Viscount.[2][14]
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