34 LIFE AND CORRESPOiYDENCE OF THE [1780 



This efiort of Dr. Smith's to cstabhsh a General American Head 

 over all the Lodges in this country seems to have been the only 

 one made in Pennsylvania; and when the project has been advo- 

 cated by other Grand Bodies, the \'oice of the Grand Lodge of 

 Pennsylvania has been invariably against it. From this action, in 

 1780, arose, undoubtedly, the widespread appellation of the title 

 of General Grand Master to Washington — an historical error which 

 has not vet been eradicated from the minds of all Masons. 



CHAPTER XL. 



Dr. Smith goes to Ciiestertown, Kent Couxty, Maryland, and estaki.ishes 

 HIS School, which finally became Washington College — Takes charge 

 OF a Parish there — Preaches a Thanksgiving Sermon for the Estab- 

 lishment OF Peace and Independence, July 4TH, 1780 — Assembles the 

 Church in Convention, November qth, 1780— The First Church Con- 

 vention IN Maryland — Address of the Parishes to the General 

 Assembly of the State — The Name "Protestant Episcopal Church" 

 first given to the Church of England at this Convention. 



As we have seen by the concluding part of our extract from the 

 Provost Stille's narrative of the Legislative attack on the College, 

 the year 1780 found Dr. Smith in Philadelphia without any situa- 

 tion, with a young family depending upon his exertions for their 

 daily bread, and with the opposition of the Presbyterian and 

 "Constitutionalist" parties to contend with. The labors of twenty- 

 six years of his life were laid in the dust, together with his official 

 honors. But as the Provost whom we have just named truly says, 

 he was not a m.an to be dismayed ; he looked realities in the face ; 

 and at once left everything, and with his wife and children moved 

 to Chestertown, Kent county, Marybnd, to found and set in ope- 

 ration a village school or academy. He was here offered charge 

 of the Parish, and was to receive as his compensation no money — 

 but 600 bushels of wheat. Such, too, were the discouraging pros- 

 pects of reward that it took one hundred and twenty-two persons 

 to agree to contribute before this amount of wheat could be prom- 

 ised. His first sermon was a Thanksgiving Sermon for the 

 Establishment of Peace and Independence in America. It was 

 preached in Chestertown Church, July 4th, 1780, the text being 

 from Isaiah lii. 10. 



