1784] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 05 



and now opulent corporation for the relief of the widows and chil- 

 dren of clergymen — which we have described much at large in our 

 former volume,* and which was a corporation, it will be remem- 

 bered, of the three States just named — to assemble at New Bruns- 

 wick, in New Jersey, to consider the best means to save its 

 property, which had been much endangered by different fiscal 

 operations of the Congress and the States, from further peril, and 

 to put the institution again into active and stable operation. 



This call brought together certain gentlemen of the clergy, to 

 wit : 



From Pennsylvania, Dr. White, Dr. Magaw and Mr. Black- 

 well. 



" New Jersey, The Rev. Messrs. Beach, Frazer and 



Ogden. 



" New York, The Rev. Messrs. Bloomer, Benjamin 



Moore and Thomas Moore. 



The affairs of the church in the lately British Provinces gener- 

 ally was a natural subject of consideration ; and there happening 

 to be at the time in New Brunswick — though there by public 

 business of a civil kind — some gentlemen of the laity from New 

 York and New Jersey, who were represented by the clergy from 

 those States as taking an interest in the welfare of the church, tliey 

 were requested to join the meeting of the clergy. These gentle- 

 men of the laity were John Stevens, Richard Stevens, John 

 Dennis, James Parker, Colonel Hoyt and Colonel Furman. And 

 thus was formed, of clergy and laity, the embryo of the General 

 Convention of the church in America. Dr. Smith was not pres- 

 ent at this meeting. The corporation for the relief of the widows, 

 etc., in behalf of which the meeting was called — a Pre-Revolution- 

 ary Corporation — was not a corporation of Maryland, although 

 after going there in 1780, Dr. Smith originated and caused to be 

 there established a similar organization. His name therefore does 

 not appear in any way in this first convention ; if the accidental 

 meeting is to be called " a convention " in any sense in which 

 the word, in connection with the church, is now commonly used. 

 Dr. White presided at this meeting ; and opened it with a sermon. 



* Pages 423-432. 



