the Countess that, with her great age and altogether, she now refuses to fulfil the solemn engagement made with me, in the year 1772, which was, to allow me a handsome salary, as long as I was her Minister and Chaplain abroad, together with a full and honorable compensation for one hundred a year settled on me for life, that I was under the necessity of forfeiting on her account, when I first left this kingdom." Extract of a Letter from Robert Keen, Esq. dated London, June 3, 1784, to Dr. P. at Woolwich. "Lady Huntingdon has been this fortnight at Spafields and began her Jubilee on Sunday last, by having several of her Students ordained in the seceding way, and having all her musicians and singers from Bath, and all her Preachers and Students from all parts. They were to have Preaching in-doors and out-doors, at Spa-fields, Tower-Hill, &c." Extract of a Letter from Dr. P. to Mr. Glen, Charleston, dated Woolwich, June 14, 1784. * "So total a separation has taken place between me and the Countess, on account of her new seceding scheme, that I have now nothing to do with her Ladyship's affairs."-"Now she takes not the least notice of it, because I did not choose to become a self-created Bishop, to assist in ordaining her ignorant scholars, under the fine term of Seceders."-" Now she talks of sending over another family immediately, and they are to be a race of new created Seceders, in order to furnish America with some first rate Clergymen. How they will be received there by any denomination, must be left to time, and the wise and learned people of America to determine.” Before this period Lady H. continued in communion with the Church, and all her Chaplains were Calvinistic Churchmen. Three have been in Carolina, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Ellington and Dr. Percy. * Promissory Note for £500 Sig. which is all Dr. P. received of her for his Services. After Dr. P. left Woolwich, he was appointed in 1793, Minister of Westminster Chapel, known by the name of Dr. Peckwell's. In 1798 he was appointed to Queen's-Square Chapel, where he continued until 1804, when he returned to Charleston. In Jan. 1805, he was appointed a temporary Assistant, or third Minister, in St. Philip's and St. Michael's Churches, and in 1807, the So. Ca. College conferred on him the degree of D. D. He continued in St. Michael's until July 1809, and in St. Philip's, until Jan. 1810. The friends of Dr. P. were desirous that he should succeed Dr. Jenkins in the Rectorship of St. Philip's, but Mr. Simons being elected, they collected a congregation in the Calvinistic Church of French Protestants, then vacant, and formed a "Third Episcopal Church." Dr. P. was elected Rector, and the Church was represented in Convention, Feb. 1810. Arrangements were then made for building a new church, which happily resulted in the completion of St. Paul's Church, Radcliffeborough." Great credit is due to Dr. P. for his active and unwearied exertions, in promoting this pious work. He was elected Rector of this Church, in April 1816, in which he continued until he left the State, in the spring of 1819. Soon after his arrival in London, he was called to his great account. He died July 13, 1819, after an illness of four days, in the 75th year of his age. His illness was occasioned by exposure at midnight, half dressed, while seeking shelter from a fire which broke out in the adjoining house. He was buried in the catacombs under the new Church of Mary-le-bone, the Parish in which he died. A Funeral Discourse was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gadsden, at St. Philip's Church, Oct. 8, 1819, at the request of the Bible Society, of which Dr. P. had been a Vice President since its foundation. Dr. P. in his religious opinions was a Calvinist. He believed the Church to be Calvinistic in its Articles, but its Clergy to be Arminians in Doctrine. He professed his entire approbation of the XXXIX Articles which he had subscribed, and admired the evangelical Liturgy of the Church. In the latter part of his life, he but seldom indulged himself in making even a trifling abridgement of its compendious form, but usually delivered it as prescribed by the church. Dr. P. deserves great credit for this conformity, considering the latitude he allowed himself in the early part of his Ministry; but the Clergy of the 'Diocess, rigidly and conscientiously adhering to the canons and rubrics, set him an example which it was difficult not to follow. The following anecdote will show that, notwithstanding his erratic ministrations when he first came to America, he held the order of the Church in reverence. When officiating in the White-Meeting, as the Independent Church was then called, he assisted the Rev. Mr. Tennent, its Minister, in the Administration of the Lord's Supper, according to the forms of that Church. But when Dr. P. in the Episcopal Church in Savannah, was about to administer that Holy Ordinance, he refused Mr. Tennent's assistance, who happened to be present, because he was not Episcopally Ordained, and could not officiate in an Episcopal Church. Dr. P. was a great admirer of Mr. Romaine and Mr. Madan, and rather made them his model than Mr. Whitefield, whom he had heard but once, and then was disappointed. Dr. P. while in Charleston, published, " An Apology for the Episcopal Church in a series of Letters, on the Nature, Ground and Foundation of Episcopacy."— "The Clergyman and People's Remembrancer, in two parts: I. An Essay on the Ministerial Character: II. A delineation of the true Christian's character.” 12 |