1803] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 447 



the Bishop and Mr. Morgan made such an arrangement that one 

 of them was with him every night. My grandmother (to whom I 

 am indebted for these facts) drove to the Falls of Schuylkill every 

 morning, leaving her little children to the care of her servants, at 

 her home, then at the southeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut 

 streets, in the city. Maxwell, the publisher, sent proofs of the 

 two volumes of his sermons daily to him, and these were cor- 

 rected by himself, though the books were not so entirely com- 

 pleted as that they could be published in Dr. Smith's lifetime. 

 In the earlier part of the year we find him writing to the painter, 

 Gilbert Stuart, a letter too characteristic and interesting to be 



omitted in our memoir: 



Falls of Schuylkill, February 28, 1803. 



My Dear Sir: By Dr. Rush's order I am now wholly confined to 

 my bed-chamber; the doctor, my brother and my friends who have any 

 regard for me or business with me, visit me here. I grow every day 

 weaker; but, thank God, he keeps my mind sound and my intellect not 

 much impaired. I beg the pleasure and comfort of a short visit from 

 you in a day or two. My son, in two or three weeks, will embark for 

 England. I shall never see him again, as I believe. He has consented 

 to sit to you for his picture before he goes. I shall pay you cash down 

 as we may agree. An answer/^/- bearer is requested by 



Your affectionate Wm. Smith. 



To Mr. Gilbert Stuart. 



In the month of April Mrs. Ann Smith,.assisted by Bishop White 

 and Mr. Morgan, brought the venerable sufferer from the Falls 

 of Schuylkill in a carriage, followed by a wagon containing his 

 "chest and red trunk " of papers, to her house, already mentioned, 

 at the southeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia, 

 where he died. May 14, 1803, at midnight, in the second story 

 front room; the same in which my father (Richard Penn Smith) 

 was born, and in which Washington had sat to Gilbert Stuart for 

 the portrait now in the Boston Athenaeum. Bishop White called 

 in the morning, and, in pursuance of a request which before death 

 had been made by his departed brother, took away the " red 

 trunk," containing the church papers, of which I have spoken.* 



The following is the last letter I have ever found of Dr. 

 Smith : 



* For account of these papers see Appendix, No. XI. 



