Robert Pearsall Smith - Definition and Overview

Robert Pearsall Smith (1827-1899) was a lay leader in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in Great Britain. He was also a businessman in the Philadelphia area, publishing maps and managing a glass factory.

Smith was from a long line of influential Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was a descendant of John Smith, who started one of the first insurance companies in Philadelphia and was one of the founders of the Philadelphia Hospital. He was also a descendant of James Logan, a close associate of William Penn and the founder of the first lending library in America, the Loganian Library.

Robert Pearsall Smith was the son of John Jay Smith and Rachel Pearsall. He was born in 1827.

During the 1840’s Robert’s father was the librarian of the Philadelphia Library Company, which now had oversight of their ancestral library, the Loganian. The library employed the prestigious architect and surveyor, James Charles Sidney. Sidney also produced maps that Robert published. Many of these maps are now valuable historical artifacts.

In 1851 Smith married Hannah Tatum Whitall, a woman who also descended from a line of prominent Quakers in the region. The Smiths settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

The Smiths were highly influenced by Methodist revivalists. They adopted the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification. They were also influenced by William E. Boardman, who wrote The Higher Christian Life (1859).

From 1864-1868 Robert and Hannah Smith lived in Millville, New Jersey. Robert managed Hannah’s father’s business, the Whitall, Tatum, & Company glass factories.

William Boardman apparently groomed Robert and Hannah Smith to join the Holiness movement as speakers. From 1873-1874 they spoke at various places in England, including Oxford, teaching on the subjects of the “higher life” and “holiness.” In 1874 the Smiths traveled to Germany and Switzerland, where they preached in several major cities. In 1875 they returned to England and conducted meetings in Brighton. Due to an unspecified scandal involving Robert, their visit to England came to an abrupt halt.

Robert Pearsall Smith’s book Holiness Through Faith (1879) is one of the foundational works of the Holiness movement.

In 1888 the Smith family moved to England because their daughter Mary married an English barrister, Frank Costelloe. It was in England that their daughter Alys Pearsall Smith met and married the philosopher Bertrand Russell. Their son Logan Pearsall Smith became an essayist and critic.

Robert Pearsall Smith died in 1899.