Charitie Lees Smith

21 June 1841—20 January 1923

(Bancroft, Parkinson, DeCheney)


Within_the_Vail_and_other_sacred_poems_b-6.jpg

CHARITIE (or Charity) LEES SMITH was born 21 June 1841 at Bloomfield, Merrion, County Dublin, Ireland. She was the daughter of Rev. George Sidney Smith II (ca. 1806–1875) and Charlotte Lees (1815–1871), and sister to Ellen Lees Smith, George Sidney Smith III (1839–1921), Henry Lees Smith (1840–1883), Robert Allman Smith (1844–1918), and Thomas Orde Smith (1846–1931). Her father was variously rector of Aghalurcher, County Fermanagh, Ireland; rector of Drumragh, County Tyrone, Ireland; canon of Derry Cathedral, and professor of biblical Greek at Trinity College Dublin. Charitie developed an aptitude for writing religious poetry at a young age and is said to have published her poems in various periodicals. These scattered printings have not been systematically documented.

Frances Ridley Havergal’s collection Specimen-Glasses for the King’s Minstrels (1881), pp. 66–67, includes Smith’s hymn “O for the robes of whiteness,” noting how the text “was written in a flush and fervour of coming ‘out of the darkness into marvellous light,’ during the great awakenings of 1859–1860 in Ireland—the very first chord of a newly-strung harp.” John Julian said this hymn was first published as a leaflet in 1860. Also in 1860, her hymn “A little while of mingled joy and sorrow” was included in J.C. Ryle’s Hymns for the Church on Earth (being an expanded ed. of his Spiritual Songs, 1849), unattributed.

In Our Own Hymn-Book (1866), three of her hymns (Nos. 567, 653, 869) were dated either 1861 or 1863. In that collection, “Lord, I desire to live as one” was dated 1861; it appeared as early as 1 Dec. 1863 in The Evangelical Witness (Dublin). Her most famous hymn, “Before the throne of God above,” was dated 1863 in OOHB; it had appeared in William Reid’s Praise of Jesus (London, 1863), without attribution. Her hymn “The King of glory standeth” (titled “Mighty to Save”) was contributed to Lyra Britannica (1867). That same year, she published a small collection, Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems (London: S.W. Partridge & Co., 1867), including those already listed above plus several others.

Charitie married Arthur Edward Bancroft at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Edinburgh on 21 October 1869. Bancroft was a naval officer, born Feb. 1845 in Waterloo, England, son of Peter and Georgiana Bancroft. Census records in the United States show Charitie emigrated there in 1877. She and Arthur were both counted in the 1880 U.S. census living in Battletown, Clark County, Virginia (entered 10 June 1880). In 1881, she and Arthur were counted in the census of England and Wales, living in Holdenhurst, a village near Christchurch, Hampshire, England, possibly signaling a return to be near his family due to deteriorating health. He died there on 22 April 1881. From this union she inherited a considerable amount of wealth.[1]

Shortly after Arthur’s death, Charitie entered into a relationship with Edmund Wollaston Parkinson, born in 1844, son of Rev. Richard Parkinson, former vicar of Northaw. Edmund was a surgeon; his wife Alice Frances Laurence had died on 23 December 1880 at Tiptree Rectory, Essex. On 4 May 1881 he filed for bankruptcy, possibly owing to depression and alcoholism from grief. Charitie and Edmund married 26 November 1881 at the register’s office, St. George, Hanover Square, London. Their marriage, apparently united in grief or sympathy or opportunity, was short-lived and greatly troubled, especially in relation to Parkinson’s mental health. Parkinson is known to have moved briefly to Philadelphia in 1882, then returned to England after a bout of sunstroke and delirium tremens. He was committed to an asylum at least twice, to Peckham Asylum from 13 March to 29 June 1886, and Hoxton Asylum from 23 April to 30 September 1890. After the latter stint, he found a job assisting Dr. Boyd of Lavender Hill, Battersea, but his poor mental health became unbearable and he took his own life on 31 January 1891, suicide by prussic acid poisoning. No obituaries of the time mentioned his marriage to Charitie.

Through the 1880s, Charitie obtained a divorce from Parkinson, reverted to using her Bancroft name, and began the process of moving to the San Francisco Bay area in California. Her brother George had emigrated there in 1879. Mrs. Charity L. Bancroft appeared on passenger lists entering New York on 14 April 1884 and again on 22 Nov. 1886, both times on the ship Britannic from Liverpool. Charitie settled in Oakland and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on 28 Sept. 1887 in Alameda County, California. She put her energy into prison ministry, first in the county jail, then in 1890 she was granted access to San Quentin prison. Around 1889, she established a transitional boarding home for ex-convicts, which is how she met her next husband:

Mrs. C.L. Bancroft, a wealthy elderly lady, established some time ago a home for discharged convicts at the corner of Eighth and Alice streets [in Oakland]. She had so many patrons that she finally had to secure larger quarters and she rented a house at Ninth and Center streets and there branched out on a grander scale. And now a man named Frank de Cheney sought and obtained admission to the house and almost directly after he was established there he seemed to have found his way to Mrs. Bancroft’s heart.

Outside of the fact of his being a man of pleasing address and suave manner, there was little to commend him, and as for his record it was scarcely calculated to make anyone fancy him on that regard. He had attempted to kill a policeman in Wisconsin and fled from justice to this State, where after a short residence he committed a forgery and went to San Quentin for two years. But he entwined himself around Mrs. Bancroft’s affections all the same, and her brother, Dr. Smith of San Francisco, learning of what was going on came over here and endeavored to dissuade his sister from the course she was taking. His appeal only had the result though of bringing matters to a crisis, for Mrs. Bancroft presented her lover with a ranch at Half Moon Bay, and at last married him.

As he is 36 years old, and she is 64, the conclusion drawn is that he married her money, for she had a good many thousand dollars lying in the bank, besides owning some valuable realty. Since the marriage her friends have all disowned her, and her family suffers considerably from the shock. She however seems to care little for the opinion of the world, and clings to her ex-jailbird, with whom she is now living at the Half Moon Bay ranch.[2]

Charitie married Frank DeCheney (Nov. 1866–ca. 1946) on 1 June 1891. She closed the boarding house around the same time. Her brother George also owned a home in Half Moon Bay, which stood until 1947. She evidently sold one of the properties over the next few years, because in the 1900 U.S. census, she and Frank were listed in San Mateo, California, living in the same house as her brother George, his wife Susan, and their son Harry. Her marriage to Frank deteriorated. They separated in 1901 after a dispute, and Frank moved to Reno, Nevada, shortly thereafter. He filed a formal petition for divorce in Reno on 6 April 1915. Sordid details of the divorce were published in the Reno Evening Gazette on 29 May 1915:

Charity Lees deCheney, former San Mateo and Redwood City society leader and for many years prominent in prison reform work in California, was divorced in the district court yesterday afternoon by Frank deCheney on grounds of desertion. The plaintiff testified that his wife, now past 70 years of age and 25 years his senior, deserted him in San Francisco in 1901 and went to Seal Grove to reside, saying that she believed it better for her happiness to reside there than in San Francisco because the temptations for her husband were too great in the latter city. Shortly after that time he came to Nevada and has made this state his home since that time. For years during the gambling boom in Reno, deCheney was a familiar figure in local gaming houses and the testimony of several witnesses was to the effect that he followed that business in Reno years ago. Now he is engaged in the mining business.

Mrs. deCheney’s strong religious belief and his agnosticism [were] given by deCheney as the chief cause of their failure to live happily. He liked “life” such as theater parties, dinners, and other forms of social amusement, and she was strongly opposed to it. George Smith, her nephew, testified that he did not believe his aunt ever attended a theater in her life. The plaintiff said the marriage, which occurred at San Francisco, June 1, 1891, was a “sympathy” match, occurring just after a long illness on his part, during which time she had been quite attentive to him. He said that he last saw her nine years ago, two days before the San Francisco earthquake [18 April 1906]. She sent for him to come down and talk things over with her. Since that time, and within the last week, he had letters from her occasionally, in all of which she said that it would be impossible for them to live together and admitting that their marriage was a mistake.

In 1910, Charitie was listed in San Mateo living by herself. Her divorce papers were served at her home in Moss Beach in 1915. In 1920, she was living in Oakland, California, with her brother Thomas, who had emigrated to San Francisco in 1903 from Sydney, Australia. Charitie DeCheney died in Oakland on 20 January 1923, at age 81.

Her known poetic output seems to have been limited to her life in Ireland. Her former property at Half Moon Bay is now part of the Seal Cove area of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. The common misspelling of her name as “De Chenez” stems from an error in John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, rev. ed. with new supplement (1907), p. 1627.

by CHRIS FENNER
and GORDON TAYLOR
for Hymnology Archive
28 May 2019, rev. 5 Aug. 2022

  1. Census details and other vital records have been compiled from FamilySearch, Ancestry, Find-A-Grave, and newspaper archives.

  2. Oakland Tribune (23 October 1891), p. 8.

Featured Hymns:

Before the throne of God above

Collections of Hymns:

Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems (1867): PDF

see also:

J.C. Ryle, Hymns for the Church on Earth (1860)
J. Denham Smith, Times of Refreshing

1st ed. (1860)
with appendix (1868)
New & enl. ed. (ca. 1874)
New Times of Refreshing (ca. 1885)

The Evangelical Witness (Dublin, 1862–)
William Reid, The Praise of Jesus (1863)
Our Own Hymn-Book (1866)
Lyra Britannica (1867)
Lyra Hibernica Sacra (1878)

Related Resources:

Charles Rogers, “Charitie Lees Smith,” Lyra Britannica (1867), pp. 511–512: Archive.org

Edwin Hatfield, “Charitie Lees (Smith) Bancroft,” The Poets of the Church (NY: Anson D.F. Randolph, 1884), p. 35: Archive.org

Samuel Duffield, English Hymns: Their Authors and History, 3rd ed., rev. (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1888), pp. 58, 210: Archive.org

John Julian, “Charitie Lees Bancroft, née Smith,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892), p. 109: HathiTrust

Charles S. Robinson, “Before the throne of God above,” Annotations upon Popular Hymns (NY: Hunt & Eaton, 1893), p. 208: Archive.org

“Cheney’s Luck: An Ex-Convict Wins the Heart of Wealthy Mrs. Bancroft,” Oakland Tribune (23 October 1891), p. 8.

“Former Society Leader Divorced: Aged Prison Reform Worker of California Deserted Her Husband,” Reno Evening Gazette (29 May 1915), p. 2: JPG

“Wife Religious, He Agnostic, Man Gets a Divorce,” San Francisco Chronicle, vol. 106, no. 135 (30 May 1915), p. 1, col. 4.

[Obituary,] Oakland Tribune, vol. 98, no. 21 (21 Jan. 1923), p. 7X, col. 3.

Arthur L. Smith, “Visitor to Reserve reflects on family gatherings, early days at Seal Cove,” Between the Tides (Moss Beach, CA: Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Autumn 1996), p. 3: PDF

Peter C. Reske, “Charitie L. De Cheney,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 2 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 289–290.

Tom Ciotti, “Fitzgerald’s own history detective delves into Seal Cove’s mysterious past,” Between the Tides (Moss Beach, CA: Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, March 2020), pp. 1–5, 11: PDF

Charitie Lees deCheney, Find-a-Grave:
1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/179239996/charitie-lees-decheney
2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189358739/charitie-de_cheney_lees-bancroft

Charitie Lees Bancroft, Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Bancroft_Charitie