William Wye Smith was born in Jedburgh, Scotland on 18th March 1827 son of John and Isabella Smith of Roxburgh. His family emigrated to Canada when he was young.

He became a recognised expert on the Scots language, and worked on the Scottish Appendix of the Dictionary. He wrote Alazon and Other Poems published in Toronto by Hugh Scobie in 1850, and The Poems of William Wye Smith published in Toronto by Dudley amp Burns in 1888.

He was ordained as a Congregationalist minister beginning in Listowel, Ontario and finishing at St. Catherineʼs, Ontario. he also translated the New Testament into Braid Scots.

At different times he was editor of the Owen Sound Times, Canadian Independent, Sunday School Times, and the Congregational Year Book. He wrote his memoirs which were published as William Wye Smith Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian. He died in Burford, Ontario, Canada on 6th January 1917 and is buried in Newmarket Cemetery, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.

New Testament

The New Testament in Braid Scots was translated and rendered into Scots by Rev William Wye Smith. In 1904 a revised edition was published in Paisley by Alexander Gardner, publisher and bookseller to the late Queen Victoria.