1785] HEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 25 1 



So you see, dear sir, on one side you are beloved and praised, and on 

 the other side hated and envied, in order to keep and preserve your 

 head and heart straight and upright — Veritas odium parit. In mine an- 

 swer to Dr. Wrangel I enclosed all your printed proceedings in Mary- 

 land, etc., which I had collected, especially the Apostolic-spirited 

 sermon, etc., and did send them along with due respects and esteem to 

 your whole honorable house. I remain. 



Reverend Sir, your most humble servant, 



Muhlenberg. 

 To the Rev. Dr. William Smith, in the State of Delaware. 



On the 14th of November, 1784, the Rev. Samuel Seabury was 

 consecrated Bishop for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, the 

 first bishop in America since the Declaration of Independence.* 

 On the 3d of August, 1785, having returned to America, he was 

 received by the clergy of Connecticut in convocation, and held 

 the first ordination of the Protestant Episcopal Church on this 

 Continent; the candidate — who was a son of Mr. Colin Ferguson, 

 Vice-President of Dr. Smith's new college — having been a student 

 of Dr. Smith's and prepared for Holy Orders under the direction 

 of that gentleman and by him recommended for them. In a letter 

 to Dr. Smith from Bishop Seabury, soon after the ordination, the 

 Bishop says : 



I cannot omit to mention the particular satisfaction Mr. Ferguson 

 gave, not only to me but to all our clergy. 



I can find no evidence of any Convention of the Episcopal 

 Church of Maryland being held in the spring of 1785, and there 

 may have been none ; but Dr. Smith leaves a note of being at 

 the 2d Annual Convention of the Church in Maryland on the 

 25th of October, 1785, and of there being present the following 

 persons : Dr. Thomas Cradock, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Bond, 

 Nicholas Merryman, Richard Wilmott, and Francis Holland, 

 Esqs. 



On the 28th of November, 1785, Dr. Smith preached at the 



* As the Rev. George Morgan Hills, D. D., Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burling- 

 ton, N. J., has made an interesting argument to show, there was at least one Bishop in 

 America before Bishop Seabury, namely, Johti Talbot, Rector of St. Mary's Church, 

 Burlington, N. J., a saintly man, consecrated by a non-juring Bishop, in or about the 

 year 1722. A monument, with a. fac siviite of his Episcopal seal, is erected to his 

 memory in olit St. Mary's Church, Burlington. See "The Pennsylvania Magazine of 

 Biography and History," Vol. HI., page 32. 



