1778] 2iEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. II 



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 deter- 

 mined 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 breth- 

 ren 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 gokl. 



3. The three orders, Dorick, lonick 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. 



