{"id":430,"date":"2025-12-05T19:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T19:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/?p=430"},"modified":"2025-12-05T19:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T19:40:07","slug":"newtownsmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/newtownsmith\/","title":{"rendered":"Newtownsmith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Cromwellians are remembered in Galway and, indeed, across Ireland with loathing because of the violence and cruelty they perpetrated against the Irish people during the mid-seventeenth century. However, one of them was obviously different. He was Erasmus Smith, who is remembered for his contribution to education. Smith was born in Leicestershire in 1611.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was a Protestant poultry merchant who supplied the armies of Oliver Cromwell with foodstuffs. Smith was awarded a number of estates by Parliament for his services to the Commonwealth. The properties he acquired around Galway included land in Ballybrit, Ballybane, Roscam, Doughiska, Bohermore; and Newtownsmith which now bears his name. Smith was obviously a very astute man given that he later secured a royal charter from Charles II, the sworn enemy of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"554\" height=\"670\" src=\"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Erasmus-Smith.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Erasmus-Smith.png 554w, https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Erasmus-Smith-248x300.png 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 554px) 85vw, 554px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Erasmus Smith<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In the 1660s, Charles II granted Smith the privilege of erecting a number of Grammar Schools around Ireland, one of them was to be established in Galway. The Galway school was established on High Street. It seems that the school was later moved to Newtownsmith. According to one source, the Erasmus Smith School in Newtownsmith was for girls. Smith died in 1691 and in the years that followed a \u2018Trust\u2019 (Board of Governors) was set up in his name. Four professorships were established in his honour in Trinity College: Erasmus Smith Chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1724) \u2013 Chair of Hebrew (1724) \u2013 Chair of Modern History (1762) \u2013 Chair of Mathematics (1762).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the late eighteenth century, the governors of the Erasmus Smith Estate began developing the Newtownsmith area, which included St Stephen\u2019s Island (Courthouse Square) as far as the present-day Corrib Terrace, Woodquay. In 1815, the Erasmus Smith Grammar School opened on College Road, which later became Yeats College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cromwellians are remembered in Galway and, indeed, across Ireland with loathing because of the violence and cruelty they perpetrated against the Irish people during the mid-seventeenth century. However, one of them was obviously different. He was Erasmus Smith, who is remembered for his contribution to education. Smith was born in Leicestershire in 1611.&nbsp; He &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/newtownsmith\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Newtownsmith&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galway-history","tag-erasmus-smith","tag-grammar-schools","tag-newtownsmith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}