Talk:John Smith (Plague City)
Name[[edit source]]
Looking through my copy of the novel I can't actually find an instance where he's referred to directly as Sir John Smith of Grothill even though he is intended to be the same person.
He's referred to as Sir John Smith throughout and on a quick flick through I can't find a mention of Grothill even though as I said he is intended to be the same Sir John Smith who was the Provost of Edinburgh in 1645.
He shouldn't be given the title 'John Smith of Grothill' unless we can find evidence in the novel of him being called this. However it is clear that he is intended to be the real historical man as Morris cites 'A tale of the Plague in Edinburgh' as one of his sources in the acknowledgments and I found this extract from that piece of writing referring to John Smith, "The house of Sir John Smith, the provost of Edinburgh, in the year 1645, was situated in the Cap-and-Feather close, an alley occupying the site of the present North Bridge."
SarahJaneFan ☎ 23:10, June 4, 2017 (UTC)
