2/4 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 



Scotland (long the venerable Rector of St. Paul's Church, Phila- 

 delphia), who had received orders from Bishop Seabury, and at 

 the Rev. William Smith, of Stepney Parish, Somerset county, 

 Maryland, who had been ordained in Scotland,* by a Bishop of 

 the Church from whence Seabury had obtained consecration. 

 The application of the previous question moved by my ancestor, 

 Dr. Smith, and seconded by Dr. White, precluded the discussion 

 which it was anticipated would grow out of this motion, and the 

 resolution itself was lost. 



Dr. Provoost, not satisfied with this expression of the will of 

 the Convention, then moved directly: 



That tliis Convention will resolve to do no act that shall imply the 

 validity of ordinations made by Dr. Seabury. 



Again the previous question cut off discussion and the main 

 question was determined in the negative; New York, New Jersey 

 and South Carolina alone supporting it. But Bishop Provoost 

 would not let the matter drop. In a Convention of New York, 

 held November 5th, 1788, and in view of the General Convention 

 of 1789 now at hand, it was resolved: 



"" The Rev. Thomas F. Davies, originally of the State of Connecticut, but long and 

 now the honored Rector of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, well known in that city, 

 not only as one of its ablest theologians, but also as among its most learned ecclesias- 

 tical historians, responding to my solicitations has been kind enough to give n^e, in a 

 friendly note, the following sketch of this eminent divine, already referred to by me, 

 supra, pages 186, 197 : 



" The younger Dr. William Smith was a fellow-countryman and townsman of your 

 distinguished ancestor, and was born at Aberdeen in 1754. He came to this country 

 in 1785, after his admission to Holy Orders, and was for two years minister of Stepney 

 Parish, Maryland. Most of his ministerial life, however, was passed in New England, 

 where he was successively Rector of St. Paul's, Narragansett ; of Trinity Church, 

 Newport, R. I., and of St. Paul's, Norwalk, Connecticut. He was subsequently ap- 

 pointed Principal of the Episcopal Academy, Clieshire. He is remembered v\ the 

 Church as the compiler of the Institution Office, which was approved by the General 

 Convention in 1804, and was again set forth with some slight modifications in 1808, 

 and also as the author of a work which attracted much attention in its day, on Church 

 Music, Chanting and Metrical Psalmody. 



" He preached the sermon at the consecration of Bishop Jarvis in 1797, a copy of 

 which is preserved in the library of St. Peter's Church. 



" He was a man of eminent and versatile talents, of extensive learning, of soundness 

 in the fiiith, and of most exemplary life. Had his knowled-'O o'f mankind been in any 

 way equal to his scholastic attai.iments, Iiis usefulness had been greater and his fame 

 more lasting. He pa-.sed the ever-ng of his days in re'.iicment at Norwalk, and died 

 i« New York in 182 1, in lire 69th year of his age." 



