James Elishama Smith, often calledShepherd Smith (1801 inGlasgow – 1857 in Glasgow) was a British journalist and religious writer.

Smith studied atGlasgow University. HearingEdward Irving preach in 1828, he became amillenarian and associated with followers ofJoanna Southcott. For a couple of years he became aChristian Israelite underJohn Wroe. He moved to London in 1832, and his millenarianism turned socialist. He translatedSaint-Simon, editedRobert Owen's journalCrisis, and wrote forJames Morrison'sPioneer.

Smith editedThe Shepherd 1834–5 and 1837–8, and wrote leaders for thePenny Satirist. In 1843 he founded a penny weekly, theFamily Herald, which at one point approached a circulation of half a million.

• The Anti-Christ, or, Christianity Reformed, 1833
• The Divine Drama of History and Civilization, 1854
• The Coming Man, 1873

• Timothy C. F. Stunt,‘Smith, James Elishama (Shepherd Smith) (1801–1857)’,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004