1793] J^^^^- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 371 



October 18. 

 The Rev. James Sproat died.* 



19th. 



The churches still closed. I wrote to the Right Rev. Bishop White, 



to prevail upon him to leave the city. He informs me that he has never 



slept out of the city during this whole calamity. With others, I tell 



him that we consider it as a great and needless risk. 



October 20. 



Dr. Blackwellf was taken with the fever to-day, and was removed 

 across the river, over to Gloucester, in the Jerseys. I pray God to 

 restore him to his life of usefulness. 



Dr. George De Benneville| died at Branchtown. 



* This was a respected clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. An inscription upon 

 a monument to his memory says of him : 



Whatever is guiltless, 



Candid and benevolent 



In the human character. 



Was conspicuous in him. 



Amiable in domestic life, 



Fervent in piety, 



Mighty in the Scriptures, 



Plain, practical and evangelical 



In preaching, 



Eminent in tenderness and charity for others. 



Humble in his views of himself, 



He was beloved and respected as a man. 



Useful and venerable as a minister of Christ. 



f Dr. Blackwell had a plantation in or among the pines of New Jersey, and to th ' 



pure and invigorating influence of the air prevalent in these woods he perhaps owed 



his recovery. For a memoir of this estimable gentleman, a much respected friend of 



Dr. Smith, see Appendix, No. I. 



\ De Benneville's father was a Huguenot, who fled to England as a refugee from 

 persecution, and he was employed at court by King William. His mother was of the 

 Granville family, and died soon after he was born, in 1703. The orphan was taken 

 charge of by Queen Anne, was placed on board of a ship-of-war, being destined for the 

 navy at twelve years of age, and received his first religious impressions on the coast 

 of Barbary by beholding the exceeding kindness of the Moors to a companion wounded 

 by a fall. For fifteen months he was in a state bordering on despair, by reason of in- 

 ward doubting of his own salvation, and at the end of that period of suffering he was 

 brought into the marvellous light of universal restitution. Feeling it his duty to preach 

 this great truth in France, he opened his testimony in the market-house of Calais about 

 the seventeenth year of his age. He was taken before a magistrate and sentenced to 

 eight days' imprisonment for the offence. Notwithstanding the warning that a repe- 

 tition would endanger his life, he persisted for the space of two years in preaching in 

 France, mostly in the woods and mountains. In these labors Dr. Benneville had 

 equally zealous preachers in co-operation — a Mr. Durant being of the number, a man 

 of twenty-four years of age. At Dieppe these two ministers were seized, tried, and 

 condemned to death. Durant was hanged, and while preparations were being made to 

 behead De Benneville a reprieve arrived from Louis XV. He was imprisoned for a 



