THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 127 



LEWIS DAVID DE SCHWEINITZ.* 



Lewis David de Schweinitz was born at Bethlehem 

 Pa., February 13, ITSO.f His father is said to have belonged 

 to an ancient and distinguished family of Silesia, Germany. 

 He was superintendent of the '' fiscal and secular concerns " 

 of the Moravian Brethren of North America. De Schweinitz 

 was, doubtless, much influenced in determining his choice 

 of vocation by his father, but still more by his maternal 

 ancestors. His mother was Dorothea Elizabeth de Watte- 

 ville, daughter of. Baron (afterwards Bishop) John de 

 Watteville and Benija,* who was a daughter of Count 

 Zinzendorf Nicolas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf (born in 

 Dresden in 1700), was celebrated, in his early youth, for 

 forming religious societies. He was afterwards associated 

 with Watteville in founding the system of the " Unitas 

 Fratrum." He established the village of Herrnhut, and from 

 this little colony many missionaries were sent out to all parts 

 of the world to instruct the heathen. At Germantown, and 

 other places near, he held frequent religious discourses in 

 1742, and in Philadelphia, in a Latin speech, renounced his 

 title of Count, resuming his original family name, and was 

 afterwards known among the Quakers as " Friend Lewis ! " 

 Under his immediate agency the colony of Bethlehem was 

 founded. He died at Herrnhut, in 1760. Such a dis- 

 tinguished example, "the ancestor of his family and the 



* This name appears in two forms. In the memoir of his life cited below, and 

 in Johnson's Encyclopaedia, etc., also in the introduction to this book (pages 4, 9, 24,) 

 it is written according to the German form, L. D. von Schweinitz. In his books, 

 which are all in Latin or in English, it is invariably written L. D. de Schweinitz, 

 (sometimes, L. D. de Schweiniz). His descendants write De Schweinitz, and here- 

 after in this book that form will be used. Benija, also written Benigna. 



t Journal of Mycology, II : 31. This sketch is based on a Memoir read by R. 

 Walter Johnson, May 12, 1835, before the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. 



1835. A Memoir of the late Lewis David von Schweinitz P. D.,with a sketch of 

 His Scientific Labours, read before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 May 12, 1835, by Walter R. Johnson. Octavo pp. 38 (with tabular view of the botanical 

 works of Mr. de Schweinitz). 



