Edward Smithwick was born in about 1647 in Virginia and was a resident of Chowan Precinct, North Carolina by 1680. In that year Smithwick made a political enemy of royal customs collector Robert Holden, who had Smithwick arrested and imprisoned. Smithwck eventally was released and he, along with several others, made a case for Holden's removal from office. The North Carolina Council occasionally met at his house and he served on the council in 1691. An attorney, he and four other men made an inventory of former governor Seth Sothel's estate in 1695. Smithwick died in Chowan in about 1716.