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From this remarkable and hopeful stock sprang our lamented friend, the course and incidents of whose life it is here proposed very briefly to sketch, and whose sterling worth we are all fain to commemorate. The limits deemed appropriate for this work will admit of little more than a chronological list of dates, events, and employments.

William H. Dillingham, son of Nathan and Rebecca (Fessenden) Dillingham, was born in the town of Lee, in Western Massachusetts, on the 3d of August, 1791. His education, preparatory to a collegiate course, was acquired at Lenox Academy, in the vicinity of his birthplace. At the age of fifteen years, he entered the Sophomore class in Williams College, where he continued a year and a half. The circumstances of his family, however, rendered it expedient to withdraw him from college before his course was completed; but his alma mater subsequently (viz. in 1815) conferred on him the honorary degree of A. M.

In the year 1808 he came to Philadelphia, and commenced the study of law under the auspices of the late Charles Chauncey, Esq., a gentleman who was ever his generous friend and faithful counsellor, and for whom, to his latest hour, he cherished the most profound veneration and grateful regard.

In 1811, Mr. Dillingham was admitted to the Bar, and thereupon settled himself, for some time, in the city of Penn, as a practitioner of the law.

With a taste finely cultivated, and a decided predilection for literary and scientific pursuits, he was always ready to aid in establishing and fostering institutions which promised to enhance the intellectual and moral character of the community. Accordingly, we learn that, in 1813, he was one of "half a dozen young men of Philadelphia," who "came together and arranged a plan for the establishment of reading-rooms." From this slender beginning, and the continued “valuable services" of our friend, co-operating with other public-spirited citizens, has resulted the noble institution, which is at once an ornament and a benefaction to our metropolis, under the name of the Athenaeum.

In the autumn of 1814, when a vandal horde, in a predatory incursion to the Capitol, had burnt our Senate-house, mutilated the classic memorials erected in honor of the gallant dead, destroyed

the national library, and were menacing with like operations every accessible city in our land, the flower of the Philadelphia youth, emulous of their revolutionary sires, promptly rallied in defence of our altars and firesides; and there, in the patriot ranks, we find our friend Dillingham, musket in hand, doing duty as a private soldier, in one of the companies of Washington Guards. Being honorably discharged at the close of the campaign, he returned to his office, and to the practice of his profession.

He continued in Philadelphia until 1817, when he removed to West Chester, the seat of justice in Chester County, Pennsylvania; where, by his diligence, fidelity, and legal ability, he rapidly advanced toward the head of the Bar, among competitors distinguished for talents and professional acumen. He was especially remarked for that exemplary trait in a barrister, of being always well prepared and ready for trial, so far as depended on himself, when his cause was called on.

In 1821 he received the appointment of prosecuting attorney for the county; which office he held until the close of the year 1823.

In the month of May, 1823, he married Christiana, daughter of Joseph H. Brinton, Esq., of Chester County; and thus became identified in feeling and interest with the people among whom he resided. He co-operated cordially in all measures propounded for the public benefit, and was a liberal supporter of all their institutions, religious, educational, literary, and scientific. His professional abilities becoming generally understood, his services were consequently put in requisition in nearly every important case within the sphere of his practice. He was employed as solicitor of the Bank of Chester County for upwards of fifteen years; was one of the founders, and a principal manager of the Chester County Athenæum; was a trustee of the West Chester Academy for seventeen years, and a munificent member of the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science for nearly twenty years.

In 1837 he was elected to the State Legislature, where he was both active and eloquent in the great cause of education, and in the support of scientific institutions.

In the autumn of 1841, after a residence of nearly a quarter of a century in West Chester, Mr. Dillingham returned to Philadel

phia, where he passed the residue of his days; but in retiring from Chester County he by no means ceased to be interested in the concerns of that venerable bailiwick. In all the movements of her people, designed to elevate the pursuits of agriculture and to promote a taste for the refinements of horticulture, he manifested a lively interest. When, in 1847, the Chester County Horticultural Society were projecting their spacious hall, the second edifice, dedicated expressly to Flora and Pomona, in these United States, Mr. Dillingham cheered them on in their generous purpose, by a remarkably able, learned, and persuasive address, which convinced them that in the vocabulary of a people embarked in such an enterprise, in such a region, there should be no such word as fail.

It might be supposed that, by merging himself in our vast and growing metropolis, after so long an absence, he would be lost to public view; but not so. His qualifications were justly appreciated, and his services speedily secured by various and important establishments, such as the direction of the Public Schools, the Institution for the Blind, for the Deaf and Dumb, the Schuylkill Navigation Company, &c.

In July, 1843, he was elected a member of the "American Philosophical Society;" and justified the choice by his zeal for its prosperity, and his anxiety that it should continue worthy of the great names associated with its early history.

In the latter years of his life, Mr. Dillingham gradually withdrew from the active duties of his profession, though he served as counsel for the Bank of Pennsylvania, from 1846 until 1852, when the feeble state of his health, induced by a slight paralytic affection, caused him to resign.

His infirmities continued to increase, attended with great nervous excitability, though still retaining his mental faculties and his literary predilections in their wonted activity, until the 11th of December, 1854, when he suddenly departed this life. The writer of this has a letter from him, dated December 8th, and received after his death, in which, remarkably enough, he refers, with peculiar interest, to the "proceedings of the American Philosophical Society."

Although the published and avowed productions of his pen are not voluminous, our friend was a frequent contributor of elegant

and judicious essays to the leading journals of the times. He was also the author of several highly finished performances in the character of orations and reviews. Of these, it is sufficient to mention his addresses before the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science; the Alumni of Williams College; the Chester County Horticultural Society; the Society of the Sons of New England in Philadelphia; and his glowing tribute to the memory of Peter Collinson. His researches, in procuring authentic materials for his discourses, were indefatigable. His literary taste was refined, almost to fastidiousness; and hence his style is terse, chaste, and polished. It may be safely predicated of him as a writer,-nihil tetigit quod non

ornavit.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY, M.D.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, was the son of Leonard Dorsey, and grandson of Edmund Physick. He was born in Philadelphia, December 23d, 1783. He early studied physic with his relative, Dr. Physick, and was Doctor of Medicine at the age of eighteen years. He afterwards visited England and France for his improvement in medical science,-returning home in December, 1804. In 1807, he was elected Adjunct Professor of Surgery with Dr. Physick, at Philadelphia; and, on the death of Dr. Wistar, was chosen Professor of Anatomy. He now attained a height most gratifying to his ambition; but Providence had selected him to teach a salutary lesson on the precarious tenure of life, and the importance of being always prepared for death. On the evening of the day in which he pronounced his eloquent introductory lecture he was attacked with a fever, and in a week died, November 12th, 1818, aged thirty-five years. When, by his express command, he was informed of his state, and apprised of his certain death, he was resigned to the will of heaven. As a Christian, he had practised the duties of religion. With fervor he reiterated his confidence in the atonement of his Saviour. He was thus sustained in an hour when, on the bed of death, the proud warrior would shudder in thinking of the destinies of eternity.

As a surgeon, he was almost unrivalled. Besides papers for the periodical journals, and an edition of Cooper's Surgery, with notes, he published "Elements of Surgery," two volumes, 1813.

DAVID JAMES DOVE.

BY JOSHUA FRANCIS FISHER.

MR. DOVE is mentioned, by Alexander Graydon, as a popular satirical poet, about the middle of the last century. He was by birth an Englishman, and had, it is said, gained some ludicrous notoriety in his own country. He was established in Philadelphia as a schoolmaster, before the year 1759; and, soon afterwards, was appointed English teacher in the Philadelphia Academy; but he disagreed with the trustees, and, on the opening of the Germantown Academy, in 1762, became head master in that seminary. Another quarrel soon separated him from that institution, and he erected a house on an adjoining lot, where he established an opposition school; but this undertaking was unsuccessful, and shortly abandoned, and we hear no more of Mr. Dove. He is said to have been a good scholar, and distinguished for his powers of elocution. He had an ardent and peculiar temper, and was whimsical even in his discipline. Amongst several amusing instances, Mr. Graydon gives the following: "He had another contrivance for boys who were late in their morning attendance. This was to despatch a committee of five or six scholars for them, with a bell and lighted lantern; and, in this odd equipage, in broad daylight, the bell all the while tingling, they were conducted to school." As Dove affected strict regard to justice in his dispensations of correction, he once submitted with good humor to the same punishment from his pupils, to their no small gratification and the entertainment of the spectators. As his poetical compositions were generally political or personal satires, their popularity, though great, was only ephemeral; and I do not know that a copy of a single piece is now to be found. I have heard repeated several lines from a very bitter attack

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