John Gibson Smith was a New Zealand Scottish poet. History He generally went by the name of John G. Smith. The son of Gibson Smith, farmer and Jane Graham, he was educated at Carnwath, Larnarkshire. In 1833 he married (as John Smyth), in Innerleithen, Peebleshire, to Williamina/Wilhelmina Wilkie (sister of Thomas Wilkie, surgeon at Innerleithen and author of "Old Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs of the South of Scotland", and described as a protege of Sir Walter Scott). Wilhelmina was born in 1803 in Bowden, Roxburghshire, to George Wilkie and Henrietta/Hannah Laidlaw. In 1834 he was appointed schoolmaster of the Parochial School at Ednam, Roxburghshire. He received a Degree as Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland in 1848. The 1841 Scottish Census has him residing at the Ednam Schoolhouse as a Teacher, with his wife Wilhelmina. The 1851 Scottish Census has him as a Widower residing at the Ednam Schoolhouse, his occupation as Parochial Schoolmaster, and birthplace as Carnwath, Lanark. Also in his household is Henrietta Nicol, his niece (by marriage), daughter of Wilhelmina's sister Mary Wilkie and her husband James S. Nicol, Schoolmaster at Yarrow, Selkirkshire. In 1851 he married Mary Waddell, eldest daughter of James Waddell and Christina McDonald of Oban, Scotland. The 1861 Scottish Census has him as married to Mary, still residing at the Ednam Schoolhouse, his occupation as Parish Schoolmaster, and birthplace as Biggar, Larnark (which is some 8 miles from Carnwath). He and Mary Waddell had 8 children, 7 of whom were born at Ednam (being John Gibson Smith born 15 Oct 1852; Christina Macdonald Smith born 2 May 1854; Mary Ann Smith born 7 Feb 1856; Jane Graham Smith born 6 Sep 1857; James Waddell Smith born 23 Jun 1859; David Macrae Smith born 1 Dec 1861; and William Crighton Smith born 2 Jan 1864). A further daughter, Margaret Jamieson Smith, was born in New Zealand on 11 Dec 1866. He published a work on the manners, customs and amusements of the Scottish Border. In 1862 he self-published a 240-page book of poetry entitled The Old Churchyard, The Twa Mice and Miscellaneous Poems and Songs in an edition of 1000. He resigned his post at Ednam school in 1864 and emigrated with his family to New Zealand aboard the ship "Sevilla" which left Glasgow on 21 May 1864 and arrived at Bluff, Southland, New Zealand on 4 September 1864. He was Chairman of