was, with rapacious neighbours, at a time when the mother country either would not or could not afford it sufficient aid. He deserted it now, when the results of his administration appeared less satisfactory, and left it to his successor to be involved in the coming catastrophe. After his return he was appointed colonel in the Swedish army, and in 1658 Governor of the Province of Jönköping. He died in 1663. The rest, who went home with him, were not so well rewarded for their services. After enduring great misery, they at length reached Stockholm, naked and in want, hoping to receive their back pay or, at least, some aid from the West India Company.1 'H. Huyghen laments, in a letter to the Chancellor, that, after a sojourn of fifteen years in New Sweden, he had reached home destitute; and Printz's companions appeared daily before Hans Kramer to complain of their distress. (Letter from Kramer to E. Oxenstjerna, dated May 25, 1654, in the Archives of the Kingdom.) (To be continued.) MATTHEW WILSON, D.D., OF LEWES, DELAWARE. BY THE REV. EDWARD D. NEILL. AMONG the prominent men in the State of Delaware, during the formative period of the republic, was Matthew Wilson, D.D., of Lewes. As a scholar, civilian, physician, educator, and divine, he was surpassed by few in America. His parents, James and Jean Wilson, came from the north of Ireland, and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in East Nottingham Township, on the 15th of January, 1731, he was born. During his boyhood, a man of remarkable talent and versatility, Francis Alison, D.D., afterwards Vice-Provost of the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, was settled over a congregation at New London in Chester County. As a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, Alison was imbued with the idea that the school was as necessary to the church as the anvil to the blacksmith, and that Christianity must advance by employing keen-eyed science as her servant. He was among the first to agitate for a college in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Presbytery of Lewes, in 1738, sent a memorial to the synod of Philadelphia, in which they use this language: "That this part of the world where God has ordered our lot, labours under a grievous disadvantage for want of the opportunities of universities and professors skilled in the several branches of useful learning, and that many students from Europe are especially cramped in prosecuting their studies, their parents removing to these colonies before they have an opportunity of attending the college, after having spent some years at the grammar school; and that many persons born in the country groan under the same pressure, whose circumstances are not able to support them to spend a course of 1 Francis Alison was born in Ireland, and was a graduate of the University of Glasgow. Upon his arrival in America he was for a time tutor in the family of the father of John Dickinson. His first attendance in the Synod of Philadelphia was in A. D. 1737. years in the European or New England colleges, which discourages much and must be a detriment to our church, for we know that natural parts, however great and promising, for want of being well improved, must be marred of their usefulness, and cannot be so extensively serviceable to the public, and that want of due pains and care paves the way for ignorance, and this for a formidable train of such consequences. "To prevent this evil, it is humbly proposed as a remedy, that every student who has not studied with approbation, passing the usual courses in some of the New England or European colleges approved by public authority, shall, before he be encouraged by any Presbytery for the sacred work of the ministry, apply himself to this Synod, and that they appoint a committee of their members yearly, whom they know to be well skilled in the several branches of philosophy, and divinity, and the languages, to examine such students." At a meeting of the same Synod, in 1739, an overture for establishing a seminary of learning was unanimously approved. In 1744 a school was established' under the care of Among the pupils of Alison were: Col. John Bayard, Delegate to Congress, 1785-87. Dr. John Cochrane, Director-General of Hospitals. John Dickinson, Delegate to Congress 1774-77, 1779-80; President of Delaware and Pennsylvania. Ebenezer Hazard, U. S. Post-Master-General, 1782-89. John Henry, U. S. Senator, 1789-97; Governor of Maryland. James Latta, D.D., a Presbyterian clergyman. Alexander Martin, Colonel at Germantown Battle; Governor of North Carolina; U. S. Senator, 1793-99. Thomas McKean, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of Congress, 1781; Governor of Pennsylvania, 1799-1808. James McLene, prominent in Pennsylvania politics. Robert McPherson, who served under General Forbes on the expedition to Duquesne; during the war for Independence a Colonel of Pennsylvania troops; grandfather of Edward McPherson, Clerk of U. S. House of Representatives. George Read, Delegate to Congress; Signer of the Declaration of Independence; U. S. Senator from Delaware, 1789-1793. Dr. Benjamin Rush, Delegate to Congress and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and eminent as a physician and philosopher. Jacob Rush, brother of Benjamin, President of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. the Synod, where "all persons who please may send their children and have them instructed, gratis, in the languages, philosophy, and divinity," and Mr. Alison was "chosen Master of said school, with the privilege of choosing an usher under him to assist him." It was the good fortune of Matthew Wilson to be a pupil under Alison in the school at New London. After Alison was called, in 1752, to the College of Philadelphia, the school was continued by the Rev. Alexander McDowell,' pastor of Elk River and White Clay Creek churches, who, for convenience, removed it first to Elkton, Md., afterwards to Newark, Delaware, which, in a paper of the day, is described as "a suitable and healthy village, not too rich or luxurious, where real learning might be obtained." Under McDowell, Wilson became a teacher in the school. In the Minutes of the Synod of Philadelphia, under date of 23d of May, 1754, is the following: "Mr. McDowell, under whose care and inspection the school has been for these two years, has declined to have the whole burden; therefore Mr. Wilson is appointed to teach the languages, Mr. McDowell undertaking, from a sense of the public good, to continue to teach logic, mathematics, natural and moral philosophy, etc., and it is agreed that Mr. Wilson have the same encouragement which Mr. McDowell had, and it is further agreed, that the Presbytery have a special regard to Mr. Wilson in their appointments, in not sending him to those vacancies which are too far distant for his attendance in the beginning of the week." James Smith, of Pennsylvania, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. W. M. Tennent, an eminent Presbyterian divine. Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, and translator of the Septuagint. James Waddell, D.D., the blind preacher described by Wirt. Alexander McDowell came with his parents from Ireland to Virginia. He was ordained in 1741. He studied medicine, and was a physician as well as a theologian. He never married, and died on the 12th of January, 1782. ? Among the early students at Newark were George Duffield, D.D., Associate Chaplain of Congress with Bishop White, Alexander McWhorter, D.D., an eminent Presbyterian clergyman, Edward Miller, M.D., brother of Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, an eminent physician, and Professor of Practice of Physic in the University of New York. By the Presbytery of New Castle he had been a few weeks before licensed to preach, and in October, 1755, he was ordained as a minister. During the year 1756, soon after Braddock's defeat, by order of Synod, he visited the frontier settlements, in the neighborhood of Winchester, Virginia. When a pupil in Dr. Alison's school he was required to make abstracts of the essays in the Spectator, and became familiar with the literature of his day. He, therefore, was much interested in the American Magazine, a monthly under the direction of a few literary persons, published by William Bradford, grandson of William Bradford, the first printer in Pennsylvania. Among the Bradford manuscripts, presented by its President, John William Wallace, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, are the names of four Right For Lord Fairfax Täshington 12 12 12 12 subscribers in the handwriting of the then young George Washington, and the following note from Matthew Wilson. "SIR: Please to take Mr. Thos. Till,' Esqr., in Sussex, as another subscriber for y' American Magazine. "Tis all I have since had an opportunity to get for you. He is a Gentleman of a plentiful Fortune; and, indeed, all the Subscriptions I have taken in, are from Persons, able at any Time to pay you, 1 Thomas Till was the son of William Till, and as early as 1726 Justice of the Peace in Sussex County on Delaware. Thomas married Gertrude Ross, and his sister married Andrew Hamilton, Jr., of Pennsylvania. (PENNA. MAG., Vol. IV. p. 237.) |