Background
He was born on February 21, 1742, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the second of three sons of Samuel Smith, a native of Portsmouth and a prominent Philadelphia merchant.
He was born on February 21, 1742, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the second of three sons of Samuel Smith, a native of Portsmouth and a prominent Philadelphia merchant.
Jonathan received a liberal education, graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1760.
After studies he entered business, played a prominent part in the protests against the measures of the mother country. He was a member of the provincial conference of June 1774, secretary to the provincial convention, January 1775, and secretary to the provincial conference of June 18-25, 1776. In this last capacity he helped to engineer the overthrow of the old provincial government. In the meantime he was appointed a member of the committee of safety (1775) and later of the council of safety (1777). When Howe's army approached Philadelphia in the fall of 1776 he presided at a meeting of "Real Whigs" (December 1) which passed resolutions recommending that every man between sixteen and fifty be ordered under arms for the defense of the state until the assembly should pass a militia law.
On February 5, 1777, he was elected to Congress, but on September 13 following, with the British again approaching Philadelphia, he resigned to assist actively in the defense of the city. At first a captain (1775), later colonel, he was now made lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of "Associators" and participated in the Brandywine campaign, winning recognition as an "intrepid militia officer. "
Smith was reelected to Congress on December 10, 1777, and served for the following year. He was made a member of the board of war on January 14, 1778, and was a member of the committee to supervise publication of the journals of Congress. He was constantly in the heart of things in Congress, despite the handicap of serious illness during the spring and summer of 1778.
From April 4, 1777, to November 13, 1788, he was prothonotary of the court of common pleas for the city and county of Philadelphia, and on July 6, 1778, he was commissioned justice of that court. Beginning with 1792 he served two years as alderman of Philadelphia and in the latter year was auditor-general of Pennsylvania under Gov. Thomas Mifflin.
While no longer in public office, he continued his interest in civic affairs and politics. Smith died at his residence in Philadelphia in 1812
Smith became an early advocate for American Independence. Initially, he supported Whigs. After 1800 Smith aligned himself with the Republicans of the more moderate stamp in Pennsylvania's factional politics, and in 1805 threw in his lot with the group opposing a constitutional convention.
He was a member of the Society of the Sons of St. Tammany, a grand master of Masons of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
He was an indefatigable worker. Throughout his life, especially in the Revolutionary period, he earned an enviable reputation for keeping records with scrupulous care.
His wife was Susannah, daughter of Col. Peter Bayard of Maryland and cousin of John Bubenheim Bayard; after his marriage he adopted Bayard as his middle name. His son, Samuel Harrison Smith, was the founder of the National Intelligencer of Washington.