, was the son of Arthur More, esq. one of the lords-commissioners
, was the son of Arthur More, esq. one of the lords-commissioners of trade in
the reign of queen Anne; and his mother was the daughter of Mr. Smyth, who left this, his grandson, an handsome
estate, upon which account he obtained an act of parliament to change his name from More to Smyth; and, besides this estate, at the death of his grandfather, he had
his place of pay-master to the band of gentlemen-pensioners, with his younger brother Arthur More, esq. He
was bred at Worcester college, Oxford; and, while he was
there, wrote a comedy, called “The Rival Modes.
” This
play was condemned in the acting, but he printed it in
1727, with the following motto, which the commentator
on the Dunciad, by way of irony, calls modest: “Hie
csestus artemque repono.
” Being of a gay disposition, he
insinuated himself into the favour of the duke of Wharton;
and being also, like him, destitute of prudence, he joined
with that nobleman in writing a paper, called “The Inquisitor;
” which breathed so much the spirit of Jacobitism,
that the publisher thought proper to sacrifice his profit to
his safety, and discontinue it. By using too much freedom
with Pope, he occasioned that poet to stigmatize him in
his Dunciad: