HOUSE WHERE INDEPENDENCE WAS DECLARED IN 1776, AND the Constitu- TION OF THE UNITED STATES SIGNED IN 1787-HAPPY CONCLUSION OF THE CONVENTION NOW BECOMES BI-CAMERAL-BOTH HOUSES SIT IN THE STATE HOUSE; THE CLERICAL AND LAY DEPUTIES, OVER WHOM DR. SMITH IS ELECTED TO PRESIDE, IN THE CHAMBER OF INDEPENDENCE- STRANGE VICISSITUDES IN DR. SMITH'S LIFE-THE HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER OF THE PROTESTANT EPIS- COPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS CONSISTS OF BISHOP SEABURY AND BISHOP WHITE, BISHOP PRO- VOOST ABSENT-THE SELECTION OF PSALMS-SOME COMPARISON OF THE PROPOSED BOOK WITH THE NEW BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER-PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH-ALTERATIONS OF THE PRAYER BOOK DEPRECATED UNLESS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND UNLESS THE BOOKS OF THE TWO CHURCHES ARE MADE NEARLY OR QUITE ALIKE-DR. SMITH WRITES AN ADDRESS ORDERED BY THE CONVENTION TO PRESIDENT WASH- RESTORATION BY THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA OF THE CHARTER OF THE COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA, UNJUSTLY TAKEN AWAY IN 1779-AN ANEC- DOTE ILLUSTRATIVE OF DR. SMITH'S READY HUMOR-HE TAKES LEAVE OF THE CONVENTION IN MARYLAND-BISHOP WHITE'S TRIBUTE TO HIS SERVICES TO THE CHURCH AND OTHERWISE IN THAT STATE-DR. WROTH'S ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON College-Dr. SMITH'S RETURN TO PHILADEL- PHIA, JULY IST, 1789-PROPOSED INSCRIPTION UPON HIS COLLEGE-PRO- CEEDINGS IN THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION-FIRST COMMENCEMENTS, MEDICAL, AND IN THE DEPARTMENTS OF ARTS, SINCE THE RESTORATION-UNION OF THE COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA UNDER THE NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA-THE REV. JOHN EWING ELECTED Provost -THE NEW INSTITUTION LANGUISHED AND CONTINUED TO LANGUISH FOR MANY YEARS, AND UNTIL THE PROVOSTSHIP OF DR. STILLE-DR. SMITH PREACHES BEFORE THE CINCINNATI, JULY 4TH, 1790-ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE OF HIS SON CHARLES WITH MISS YEATES-DEATH OF HIS DAUGHTER, MRS. GOLDSBOrough-BeauTIFUL INSCRIPTION ON HER TOMB DR. SMITH APPOINTED BY THE MASONIC ORDER OF PENNSYLVANIA TO PRE- PARE AN ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, WHICH HE DOES HE RECEIVES AN ANSWER FROM THE PRESIDENT-DR. SMITH TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS, ESQ.-MARRIAGE OF DR. SMITH'S DAUGHTER, REBECCA, WITH MR. SAMUEL BLODGET, OF BOSTON-MRS. CADWALADER TO MRS. RIDGELY, THE YELLOW FEVER OF 1793 IN PHILADELPHIA MR. MATHEW CAREY'S ACCOUNT OF IT—ADVERTISEMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS IN THE NEWS- PAPERS ABOUT IT-EXTRACTS FROM DR. SMITH'S DIARY DURING THE PES- TILENCE-DEATH OF DR. SMITH'S WIFE-ADDRESS AND EXHORTATION BY THE EIGHT Sermons on the great Visitation of PESTILENCE REMARKED ON-DISTINGUISHED, EVEN ABOVE THE AUTHOR'S OTHER PULPIT Discourses, BY SERIOUSNESS AND SOLEMNITY-EXTRACTS FROM SEVERAL OF THEM....... 381 DR. SMITH DEVOTES HIMSELF TO INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT THROUGH THE UNION CANAL SCHEME-HIS HALF-BROTHER, THOMAS SMITH, APPOINTED TO THE BENCH OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA-DEATH OF JOHN PENN-DR. SMITH PREACHES ON THE SUBJECT OF ITINERANT MISSIONS-- ALSO AT FUNERAL OF COL. JOSEPH RUDULPH-ALSO BEFORE the Grand LODGE OF PENNSYLVANIA-GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1795-CONSECRATION TO THE EPISCOPATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA OF DR. ROBERT SMITH-DR. WILLIAM SMITH PREACHES THE CONSECRATION SERMON, ALSO THAT OF LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. CHAPTER XXXVI. DR. SMITH PREACHES IN THE CHURCHES NEAR THE VALLEY FORGE-HIS CATTLE AND HORSES ARE TAKEN FOR THE ARMY, BUT RESTITUTION OR COMPENSATION IS HONORABLY MADE BY ORDER OF GENERAL WASHINGTON—— MAKES OBSERVATIONS, ALONG WITH RITTENHOUSE AND OTHER MEN OF SCIENCE, ON AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN-PREACHES ON ST. JOHN's Day, before WASHINGTON AND THE SOCIETY OF FREE MASONS. As the reader will remember, the last chapter of Volume I. of this work left the British in the possession of Philadelphia, and Dr. Smith and part of his family residing on Barbadoes Island, seventeen miles above the city, within an hour's ride of the Valley Forge. On some occasions during the winter he preached in the churches in the Valley and at Radnor; both churches, as all others in the State, having been vacated permanently or temporarily by their rectors. The Rev. Mr. White, afterwards the Bishop, who was chaplain of Congress at Yorktown, the Rev. Mr. Blackwell, afterwards the well-known Dr. Blackwell, who was chaplain to the First Pennsylvania Regiment and surgeon to one of the regiments at the Valley Forge, and my ancestor, Dr. Smith, were, at this time, I presume, the only three Episcopal clergymen in the State. Mr. Currie, in Chester county, had been for some time pretty much superannuated, and was now, I think, not in the Commonwealth. Mr. White was with the Congress, during the occupation, at Yorktown. Mr. Blackwell, in his double office of spiritual and bodily physician, was closely occupied on the hills and in the huts of the Valley Forge. So that the only person who could perform anything like parochial duty was the subject of our biography. I find but little of Dr. Smith's correspondence during the winter, and but little of his personal history of interest to the reader, except that Michael Rudulph and certain of the troops drove off some of Dr. Smith's cattle and his best horse, which was taken for the use of his friend, General Porter. However, upon an application to General Washington, his cattle were returned and he received pay for his horse. On the 28th of March, Dr. Smith was present at a meeting of the people, held at Forty Fort, Wyoming, in regard to the claims of Connecticut to lands in Pennsylvania; a question which long and deeply agitated a portion of the State. Samuel Sutton was chairman, and Dr. Smith reported to the meeting that he and Dr. Ewing had succeeded in having the "Confirming Law" repealed. On the 24th of June, assisted by his old scientific friends of the "Transit" day-Mr. Rittenhouse, Mr. Lukens, and Mr. Owen Biddle-he made for the Philosophical Society the observations of an eclipse of the sun. The result of these observations from the manuscript of Dr. Smith, is published entire in the Appendix of "Barton's Life of Rittenhouse." On the 10th of July, 1778, Dr. Smith preached in Oxford Church, on the first opening of the churches after the evacuation of the city by the British. From the 28th of June, 1777, to the 25th of September, 1778, there were no public meetings of the Board of Trustees of the College. The affairs of the institution during the occupation of the city by the British had a great advantage from a supervision of them by the Honorable Thomas Willing, one of the trustees, who remained in the city during that term; a gentleman whose patriotism was never questioned, although he voted steadily against the Declaration of Independence. His very high personal character saved him from any molestation by either side. Ebenezer Kinnersley died on the 4th of July, in the year last mentioned; his health, which a residence of considerable length in the islands of the West Indies did not re-establish, having been for a good while before enfeebled. On the 15th of December of this same year, the minutes of the College tell us that “Dr. Smith informed the board that some years ago Mr. Kinnersley had made an offer to the College of his electrical apparatus and the several fixtures belonging to it, upon a valuation to be made by some proper judges; that the trustees were then disposed to accept of the proposal, but that through the disturbance of the times the business had not been completed; that Mr. Kinnersley being since. deceased, the apparatus, by order of his executors, had been valued at about five hundred pounds, was now in complete order, and perhaps equal to any apparatus of the kind in the world, and, therefore, proper to be kept as it stands, for the use of the College." "The trustees who are present," continued the minutes, "are of opinion that the said apparatus should be taken at the valuation. set upon it for the use of the College, and that it be inserted in the notices to be given of next meeting; that money is proposed to be laid out in order to have a full authority for this purchase." At the meeting thus called, and which was held December 23d, 1778, it was agreed "that the treasurer may pay Mrs. Kinnersley on account of the College for the electrical apparatus, as the same has been valued by Mr. Rittenhouse and Mr. Bringhurst, and that the inventory thereof be procured and inserted in the minutes." On the 28th of December, 1778, the anniversary of St. John, the Evangelist, the grand and subordinate lodges of Masons determined to celebrate the day with a procession and sermon. They appointed a committee to wait upon the Grand Secretary, Dr. Smith, and request him to deliver the sermon, and to personally wait on "Brother George Washington, and request his excellency to attend the procession." Dr. Smith, having agreed to preach the sermon, waited upon the General, who courteously promised to take part in the procession. Accordingly, at nine o'clock in the morning of St. John's Day, nearly three hundred of the brethren assembled at the College, and at eleven o'clock went in regular procession thence to Christ Church to attend divine service. The order of the procession was as follows, viz. : 1. The Sword Bearer. 2. Two Deacons, with blue wands tipt with gold. 3. The three orders, Dorick, Ionick and Corinthian, borne by three brethren. 4. The Holy Bible and Book of Constitutions, on two crimson velvet cushions, borne by the Grand Treasurer and Grand Secretary. 5. A reverend brother. |