[Epoch Times] In 1765, Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie moved to Paris from England to give birth to her illegitimate son in secret. James Lewis Macie was the son of Macie and her lover Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland. There was, however, a caveat to his name. Elizabeth Macie made her son promise that when she died, he would change his last name to Smithson.
Eventually, the wealthy and successful scientist and bachelor would leave his money and estate to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. If Hungerford had children, the inheritance would be disseminated to them. If Hungerford did not have children, however, Smithson made the interesting and rather mysterious decision to bequeath all his wealth "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men."
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