 He became known locally as a philanthropist, doing his best to improve educational standards in his home district, opening several non-denominational schools with his own money.In 1834 he acquired the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall for £20,000, and set about changing the islanders' way of life, expelling those who could not find a job locally and reforming the long-neglected leaseholds of the smaller islands, where systematic sub-letting and underinvestment had left the population in a state where subsistence was the best that could be hoped for, and famine a constant threat.In 1861, Augustus Smith Esq, MP published "A True and Faithful History of the Family of Smith, Originally Cradled at Wiverton and Cropwell-Butler, in the Parish of Titheby, and more recently established at Nottingham, in the County of Nottingham".