Philip Sydney Smyth (14 March 1715 – 29 April 1787^[1]) was a Church of Ireland clergyman and fourth Viscount Strangford in the Peerage of Ireland.^[2] He succeeded to the viscountcy on 8 September 1724.^[1]

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.^[3] King George II appointed him Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin in 1746 but the chapter successfully argued that the Crown was not the patron, and he was dispossessed.^[4] He was successively Prebendary of Killaspugmullane in Cork Cathedral;^[5] Precentor of Elphin (1746–52);^[6] Dean of Derry (1752–69);^[7] and Archdeacon of Derry^[8] (1769–74).^[9][2][10]

He sat in the Irish House of Lords until 1784, when he was excluded by Act of Parliament after being tried and convicted of corruption for soliciting a bribe of £200 from the applicant in a court case that was pending before the House.^[11][12] The scandal was exacerbated by the fact that it came less than two years after the Irish Lords had regained final appellate jurisdiction from the British House of Lords.^[13]

In 1741 Strangford married Mary, daughter of Anthony Jephson, MP for Mallow and his second wife Hannah Rogerson. They had six children: Mary-Anne (1745–1823) and Anne-Philippa (1749–1830), both unmarried; Robert, Philip, and Frances, who all died young; and finally Lionel (1753–1801), who also took holy orders before succeeding as 5th Viscount.^[2][14]

• Cotton, Henry (1849). Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies in Ireland. Vol. 3: Ulster. Hodges and South. pp. 334, 338. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
• Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol IV 1898
• Alumni Dublinenses : a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860)
• Cracroft's Peerage: The Complete Guide to the British Peerage