Sarah Murden (@sarahmurden.bsky.social)

Guest post by R M Healey – John Spencer Smith: an English gentleman on the make in late eighteenth century Constantinople – Part 2 In the previous article, we left John Spencer Smith, the former page boy at the Royal court, Oxford graduate, failed soldier (on half pay as a ‘ reduced lieutenant ‘…

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Guest post by R M Healey – John Spencer Smith: an English gentleman on the make in late eighteenth century Constantinople – Part 2 In the previous article, we left John Spencer Smith, the former page boy at the Royal court, Oxford graduate, failed soldier (on half pay as a ‘ reduced lieutenant ‘ of 8th regiment of foot from December 1792 to December 1793 ) and blagger among the diplomats in late eighteenth century Constantinople, investing in a scheme to mine coal in Tagamok on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea in early 1794. These proceedings involved a great deal of investment in local labour and mining tools and although he enjoyed a smallish income from a contract to repair the city’s fortifications, in which he seems to have collaborated with Kauffer, the celebrated cartographer, these expenses, together with the cost of living must have put a strain on his budget, especially since (according to his weekly ' https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/guest-post-by-r-m-healey-john-spencer-smith-an-english-gentleman-on-the-make-in-late-eighteenth-century-constantinople-part-2/