CHAPTER XLII. DR. SMITH PREACHES A FUNERAL DISCOURSE ON THE REV. HUGH NEILL, of WHOM SOME ACCOUNT IS GIVEN DEATH OF MRS. BLACKWELL, WIFE OF THE REV. MR. BLACKWELL--NOTICE AND ELEGIAC STANZAS UPON HER DEATH ATTRIBUTED TO DR. SMITH--THE CONVENTION OF 1782 IN MARYLAND— SUCCESS OF KENT COUNTY SCHOOL, AND DEVELOPMENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, MARYLAND-DEATH OF WILLIAM MOORE, ESQ., OF MOORE HALL. In the account which we have given in our former volume of St. Paul's Church, in Third street, Philadelphia, the matrix of the low-church parishes in Pennsylvania, we refer to the Rev. Hugh Neill, one of the most respectable of the clergy of this Methodistical side of the Episcopal body. Mr. Neill was born in New Jersey, and had been bred a Presbyterian, and preached in that sect in his native State until 1749, when he went to England and took orders in the Church, and was licensed by the Bishop of London for Pennsylvania, March 26th, 1750. He was sent, however, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to Dover, in Delaware, which, indeed, then made a part of Pennsylvania, and here he remained until 1760, when he was transferred to Trinity Church, Oxford, Pennsylvania, preaching on Sunday evenings at Germantown. In 1765 he officiated in Philadelphia at St. Paul's, and in 1766, having received from Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, an induction as rector of the parish of St. Paul's in Queen Anne county, he left Philadelphia for that charge, having refused to receive any pay for his services. In order to show their appreciation of this kindness, the vestry of St. Paul's, Philadelphia, presented him with a piece of plate bearing the following inscription: The Gift of St. Paul's Church in Philadelphia to the REV. HUGH Neill, in gratitude for his disinterested ministerial services to that Church. A. D. 1766. In 1773, refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the new Government, he left his charge. He returned, however, in 1780. By his last will he left the above-mentioned piece of silver plate to St. Paul's Church. He ministered at St. Paul's, in Queen Anne county, Md., sixteen or seventeen years. Though he was, as I suppose, of the school of Wesley and Whitfield, and though Dr. Smith, according to Mr. Neill's own account, treated him, on one occasion at least, very roughly, he had so many good qualities of personal character, that Dr. Smith came at last to entertain for him a sincere regard, and apparently did so even while he was in Philadelphia and connected with St. Paul's there, a parish in which Dr. Smith was no more a favorite than were any other regularly behaved clergy of the Church of England. After Dr. Smith went to Maryland, he met often his ancient acquaintance of Philadelphia, and at his death preached, January 23d, 1782, an affecting sermon at his funeral. Dr. Smith's text, from Genesis xv. 15-" Thou shalt go to my fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age"-suggests that Mr. Neill at his death had attained to venerable years. We have mentioned in our first volume the interest which Dr. Smith took while in Philadelphia in "the mission at Gloucester," as it was called; a mission in New Jersey, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. With the mission at Burlington (N. J.), occupied by Dr. Smith's accomplished and much valued friend, Dr. Jonathan Odell, it was one of the important missionary stations of New Jersey, especially in its aspects to the Church in Philadelphia. The Rev. Nathaniel Evans, a favorite pupil of Dr. Smith, and a graduate of the College at Philadelphia, a young man of singular talents, accomplishment and piety, had been the first occupant of it, entering upon the mission in 1765, and dying there two years afterwards, in 1767, deeply lamented by all who knew him. Dr. Smith edited his literary remains, thus showing his regard for him. Dr. Smith was thus a frequent visitor at Gloucester, where he became intimately acquainted with the most important families of the region, including more particularly among them that of Mr. Joseph and Ann Harrison. Dr. Smith took much pains to re-establish the missions after Mr. * See Perry's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, page 319. For a sketch of, see vol. 1st, pp. 434, 479. Evans' death. The Rev. David Griffith, afterwards Bishop elect of Virginia, was in it; only, however, for a short time. The Rev. John Lyons also occupied it for a short time, but neither with effect. In 1772 the Rev. Robert Blackwell entered into chargea young gentleman of high integrity, amiable disposition, sound sense, solid learning and unquestioned piety. These excellent qualities made him a favorite with all who knew him, and especially with Dr. White and Dr. Smith.* Mr. Blackwell remained at Gloucester until the mission was broken up by the Revolution, when, becoming a chaplain in the army, he went to the Valley Forge, and during the winter of 1777-78-which Dr. Smith passed close to him at Norristown-the two clergymen were, of course, in more or less consultation as to the exercises of their office; Dr. White being at Yorktown with the Congress, as we have already stated in an early part of this volume. In 1781 Mr. Blackwell became one of the ministers of the United Churches of Christ and St. Peter's, in Philadelphia, a post which he occupied with much dignity and usefulness for thirty years, and in which, as in the College of Philadelphia, of which he was afterwards a trustee, he was of necessity in frequent relations with Dr. Smith. While at Gloucester, he became attached to Miss Rebecca Harrison, a daughter of the family of which we have spoken, and for which Dr. Smith had cherished a high regard;-a young lady of unusual attractiveness and merit. She died on Monday, the 25th of February, 1782, a year or two after her marriage, in giving birth to a daughter, who survived. An obituary notice of her and some elegiac stanzas addressed to her sister, and attributed to Dr. Smith, may properly be here inserted as an illustration alike of his sympathetic heart and ever-ready and accomplished pen. Such things are indeed in one sense of no great value. Nevertheless, like a good deal that I have sought to preserve in my volumes, they show a refinedness of feeling in our early society, and an elegance in our early ephemeral literature which it would be well for our own day if they had descended in a more abundant measure to it. Death of Mrs. Rebecca Blackwell. On Monday morning last, the wife of the Rev. Mr. BLACKWELL, Assistant Minister of the United Churches, Philadelphia, was safely *For a sketch of this respected gentleman, see Appendix No. I. S del vered of a daughter at his house in Gloucester to the great joy of as family and friends. But the pleasing hopes arising from the happy event were soon changed to the deepest sorrow on perceiving an alteration which indicated her approaching dissolution; and, notwithstanding that the best medical assistance was procured, she expired about four o'clock the same afternoon. Her remains were deposited on Thursday, attended by a great concourse of friends and acquaintances to pay the last melancholy offices to a character so deservedly esteemed and beloved. Blessed by nature with a comprehensive understanding and most lively fancy, she had improved the one by an excellent education, and refined the other by a solidity of judgment uncommon to her sex. With the former she ever promoted the cause of virtue, and with the latter made folly ridiculous, and put vice out of countenance. Adorned with every social virtue, she felt the most exalted sentiments of friendship; and with a delicacy peculiar to herself, selected such to share her confidence as were capable of the same refined ideas, while the tenderness of her heart melted at the tale of woe, and from the child of want her face was never turned aside. When the voice of nature and of reason dictated a change of condition, she did not place her affections on pomp or wealth, but bestowed them on one whose propriety of sentiment and purity of morals were consonant to her own. And the happiness of both was such as might be expected from a union where kindred merits and mutual esteem had ripened friendship into love. Thus, though in possession, yet from a conviction of the instability of human happiness, she had remembered her Creator in the days of her youth, and devoted herself to the practice of those essential duties of religion without the performance of which no true felicity can. be enjoyed here, or a happy immortality be hoped for hereafter. Thus living an 1 thus beloved, by a stroke unexpected to her friends, but not sudden to herself, whose lamp was always burning, on the 25th of February, 1782, and in the 25th year of her age, was this amiable pattern of Christian virtues, to the unspeakable grief of her relations, and the irreparable loss of her husband, removed f Not to be affected with and lement a ble a want of those feelings whititute the this transitory scene. vere, would discover of human nature. ELLA. UPON A LA OLY 13 No more of earthly • mand W. S. The solemn spectacle is o'er, Yet, bowed with grief, you still deplore, For her who can't return. She is no more! The fatal blow The joys of life to crown! Her loved remains in dust reposed, The thought would make her blest! TO THAT RESOURCE APPLY. RELIGION calms the pangs of grief, But turn, oh, turn your weeping eyes That claims a mother's care! And may thy Friend, thy parent see Thy mother's graces bloom in thee, And all HER virtues share.* * This prayer was abundantly granted. The child, who survived, became, somewhere I suppose about the year 1800, the wife of Mr. George Willing, and lived till the year 1852, I think; honored and beloved by as many as ever knew her. -H. W. S. |