When the 1787 Hungerford Deed reached the Smithsonian Institution Archives in 2019, its 16 folded parchment pages were stiff and difficult to open, but it soon became clear that the document offered new insight into the family life of the Smithsonian’s founding donor. James Smithson, who left his fortunes to the United States “to found in Washington, . . . an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” was the illegitimate child of the first Duke of Northumberland and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie. In the late 18th century, his mother and her sister went head-to-head in court over ownership of property springing from their ancestral roots in the Hungerford family, which had been prominent in the medieval era.
Today, to mark the Institution’s 175th anniversary, the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives launches the virtual exhibition “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Hungerford Deed and James Smithson's Legacy,” providing viewers an opportunity to “turn the pages” of this recently recovered document. The new website offers a deep dive into the deed, sharing biographical insight into some of the players as well as explanations of legal processes and background on social customs of the era. William Bennett, a Smithsonian Archives conservator, calls it the “next best thing to turning the pages yourself with an expert at hand to offer context and to highlight points of interest.”
Upon its arrival as an anonymous gift to the Smithsonian, the deed thrilled Bennett. “It shows you so much of the material culture of this place in time,” he says, and it offers a view of “these people’s daily lives, what their milieu was like.” As someone whose chosen career focuses upon the protection of old documents, Bennett was delighted by an unexpected treat. “To learn that it’s connected to history of the founder just pushed it over the edge for me in terms of its interest and appeal. It has Smithson’s signature on the back under his birth name, which is awesome.” Because the unexpected pandemic took him away from typical hands-on conservation work in the archives, Bennett made the most of a greater opportunity to research the deed and analyze its history.
As a witness to the deed, Smithson played a role in its finalization, and he signed it, James Louis Macie, the name his mother chose for him when he was a baby (and which he kept until he was in his mid-30s). To obscure his parentage, she had given him the last name of her late husband, even though John Macie had died several years before Smithson’s birth.