them with a blunted awl; for the rest, my memory was tenacious, and I could multiply and divide it to a great extent. "Hitherto I had not so much as dreamed of poetry; indeed, I scarcely knew it by name; and whatever may be said of the force of nature, certainly never lisp'd in numbers.' I recollect the occasion of my first attempt; it is, like all the rest of my non-adventures, of so unimportant a nature, that I should blush to call the attention of the idlest reader to it, but for the reason alleged in the introductory paragraph. A person, whose name escapes me, had undertaken to paint a sign for an ale-house: it was to have been a lion, but the unfortunate artist produced a dog. On this awkward affair, one of my acquaintance wrote a copy of what we called verse: I liked it, but fancied I could compose something more to the purpose. I made the experiment, and by the unanimous suffrage of my shopmates,

was allowed to have succeeded. Notwithstanding this encouragement, I thought no more of verse, till another occurrence, as trifling as the former, furnished me with a fresh subject; and thus I went on, till I had got together about a dozen of them. Certainly, nothing on earth was so deplorable; such as they were, however, they were talked of in my little circle, and I was sometimes invited to repeat them, even out of it. I never committed a line to paper for two reasons; first, because I had no paper; and, secondly-perhaps I might be excused from going further; but, in truth, I was afraid, as my master had already threatened me, for inadver tently hitching the name of one of his customers into a rhyme.

"In this humble and obscure state, poor beyond the common lot, yet flattering my ambition with day-dreams, which, perhaps, would never have been realized, I was found, in the twentieth year of my age, by Mr. William Cookesley-a name never to be pronounced by me without veneration. The lamentable doggerel which I have already mentioned, and which had passed from mouth to mouth among people of my own degree, had, by some accident or other, reached his ear, and given him a curiosity to inquire after

the author.

"It was my good fortune to interest his benevolence. My little history was not untinctured with melancholy, and I laid it fairly before him. His first care was to console; his second, which he che. rished to the last moment of his existence, was to relieve and support me."

Through the kindness of Mr. Cookesley, a subscription was raised "for purchasing the remainder of the apprenticeship of William Gifford; and for enabling him to improve himself in writing and English

grammar." In two years and two months from the day of his emancipation, he was pronounced fit for the university.-English Paper.

Died in England, in consequence of a

cold taken at the funeral of the duke of York, the Hon. and Right Rev. GEORGE PELHAM, lord bishop of Lincoln, D. C. L., aged sixty-one. This excellent prelate was youngest son of the late, and brother. to the present earl of Chichester. He was born on the 13th October, 1766, and married, in 1792, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Rycroft. He was consecrated bishop of Bristol, in the room of Dr. Cornwall, in 1803; translated to Exeter, in the room of Dr. Fisher, in 1807; and on, Dr. Tomline being translated to the see of Winchester in 1820, his lordship succeeded him in the bishopric of Lincoln. His lordship was also clerk of the closet to the king, and canon residentiary of Chichester. His lordship was formerly of Clareball, Cambridge.

From the Gospel Advocate for December, 1826. BIOGRAPHY OF BISHOP PARKER.

Dr. Samuel Parker was born in Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, in the month of August, 1744. He was the third son of William Parker, a distinguished lawyer, and one of the judges of the superior court of judicature in that province. He received his education at Harvard College, and graduated in 1764. Immediately after leaving the university, he was elected master of the ancient and respectable grammar school in Roxbury, and subsequently, while pursuing his theological studies, he was employed in the business of tuition in Newburyport, and in his native town of Portsmouth. His parents were not in communion with the Church of England, but he himself became early attached to its doctrines and discipline, and the attachment increased as his studies and life advanced. Upon the death of the Rev. Mr. Hooper, rector of Trinity church in Boston, Dr. Walter, who was settled there as an assistant minister upon the Greene Foundation, was appointed to the rectorship, and the subject of this memoir, then residing at Portsmouth, was elected the assistant minister on that foundation, in the month of October, 1773, and was requested to go without delay to England for ordination Dr. Richard Terrick, then lord bishop of London, his diocesan, admitted him to deacon's orders on the 24th day of February, 1774, and three days afterwards or dained him priest. After residing some time in England, he returned to Boston, and on the second day of November he subscribed the "Votes and Rules for the Observation of the Assistant Minister of Trinity Church." He had scarcely entered upon his official duties, before the war of the revolution VOL. XI.

[VOL. XI.

commenced, and exposed him to a very severe trial.

"As the Episcopal Church had shared the royal bounty and favour," says Dr. Gardiner,*" and in this country had always been unpopular among the zealots of other persuasions, she naturally became an object of jealousy at this crisis, and her ministers the objects of resentment. Alarmed for their personal safety in this moment of menace and peril, they fled. Mr. Parker alone remained, and constant to his duty, persevered in its execution.”

Dr. Walter, of Trinity church, Dr. Caner, of the king's chapel, and the Rev. Mather Byles, who was rector of Christ church, and son of the celebrated doctor of the same name, retired within the British province of Nova-Scotia. The chapel and Christ church were shut for several years.

Mr. Parker's situation was indeed critical; and the discharge of his conflicting duties, on one side to the Church of England, and on the other to his native land, required the exercise of great prudence and unshaken fortitude. On the 18th of July, 1776, a fortnight after the declaration of independence at Philadelphia, he found himself obliged to call a meeting of the wardens and vestry. He informed them, "that he could not with safety perform the service of the church for the future, as the continental congress had declared the American provinces free and independent states, and had absolved them from all allegiance to the British crown, and had dissolved all political connexion between them and the realm of England; that he was publicly interrupted the Lord's day preceding, when reading the prayers in the liturgy of the church for the king, and had received

21

* Funeral Sermon, page 5.

many threats and menaces that he would be interrupted and insulted if the prayers for the king should again be read in the church; and that he was apprehensive some damage would accrue to the proprietors of the church, if the service was in future carried on as had been usual, and therefore desired their counsel and advice."

The vestry and proprietors passed a vote "that Mr. Parker, the present minister, be desired to continue officiating in said church, and that he be requested to omit that part of the liturgy of the church which relates to the king and royal family."

In November of this year, (1776,) Dr. Parker was married to Anne, daughter of Mr. John Cutler, of Boston, a lady who, with several children of the marriage, still survives him.

The situation of an Episcopal clergyman, at the very head-quarters of the revolutionary spirit and troubles, it may easily be perceived, must, for a long time, have been far from enviable. The ecclesiastical connexion, designated, as was believed, by the very name of the Church of England, was obnoxious to a highly excited popu lace, and subjected all Episcopalians to the dangerous consequences of a supposed hostility to their country's cause. Very great circumspection, and an uncommon share of firmness, were necessary on the part of the ministers of the church in every quarter of the country; and such was his own parish's grateful estimation of Dr. Parker's discretion and fearless discharge of official duty amid the difficulties of his station in such trying times, stand ing alone, and by his single efforts, "6 through evil report and through good report," holding together the principal, if not the only, church and society in Massachusetts, that, in 1777, the proprietors voted seventy-five pounds "as a gratuity to the Rev. Mr. Parker, for his extraordinary services the year past," and invested him with "the powers, privileges, and immunities of incumbent minister for one year, provided the Rev. Mr. Walter should not, before that time, return to his charge," and gave him the rector's salary as well as that of the assistant minister.

This arrangement continued until the 13th day of June, 1779, when the proprietors voted, by yeas and nays, upon this question, Whether this church has now an incumbent minister or not? The nays prevailed by a very large majority. On the 27th day of the same month, Dr. Parker received official notice that he was unanimously elected rector of the church, and he was requested to accept the office. In his reply, he observes to the proprietors, "Your inclination to set me at the head of this society after so long an acquaintance, though the doing of it has been attended with circumstances that must give pain and uneasiness to a feeling mind, demands my most grateful acknowledgments. The orphan state of an Episcopal Church in this country affords matter of discouragement to every one, and the peculiar state of this church in particular, rather aggravates than diminishes the difficulty.. As this is an affair of the utmost consequence and importance to me, as involving in it, in a great measure, my future happiness or disquiet in this world, and my everlasting happiness or misery in another, I must, in addition to your former favours,* request the indulgence of a little time before I give a final answer. I must persist in this request, because, as I hinted to you before you proceeded to a choice, I have some doubts in my mind which I cannot remove without consulting some records and authors, that I cannot immediately come at.

On receiving this letter, the proprietors assented to his wishes, and gave him time; and he was finally persuaded to yield to their desires, and be ins ducted as rector.

Upon this part of his life Dr. Gardiner remarks," To the noble conduct of our deceased friend must doubtless be attributed the preservation of the Epis copal Church in this town. Nor was the spirit he displayed less disinterested than firm. Repeatedly did he refuse the rectorship of this church, anxiously desirous of leaving open a path for the

* He had twice before, in the two previous. years, requested and obtained delay in their proceedings about the incumbent, hoping Dr. Walter might return.

return of his senior colleague ;* and it was with difficulty, and after a considerable space of time, that he was prevailed on to accept it. From that moment he gave himself up to the promotion of its interests: and such were the efficacy of his preaching and the respectability of his character, that the pews of this church have never been sufficient to answer the numerous de mands for them. His reputation extended throughout the Union, and was rewarded with a doctorate from a respectable university. He was looked up to as the head of the Episcopal Church in New-England, and inferior to no clergyman on the continent in the essential accomplishments of that sacred character."

He was known abroad as well as at home, and was selected by the Society in England for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, as their agent in the management of their financial concerns, and the care of their lands in this part of America.

For several years after the peace which succeeded the revolutionary war with Great-Britain, Dr. Parker assiduously devoted all the time he could spare from his family and church, to the restoration of the scattered churches and societies which had been dispersed by the civil contentions and belligerent operations of that memorable period; and every Episcopal parish in the state has borne testimony to his kindness and pastoral care.

In 1792 his parochial labours were partially relieved by the election of a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian, in the person of Dr. John Sylvester J. Gardiner, to the office of assistant minister, who has also succeeded him to the rectorship of Trinity church.

Dr. Parker was appointed in 1793 to preach the Election Sermon before the legislature of Massachusetts: and in 1803 he delivered a discourse for the benefit of the Female Asylum in Boston, both of which performances were published.

* Dr. Walter returned to the United States in 1791, and officiated first at Cambridge. In 1792 he was settled as rector of Christ church in this city, in which office he remained till his death.

Upon the decease of Bishop Bass, he was unanimously elected bishop of the eastern diocese, and to the acceptance of this dignified office he gave a very reluctant assent after several months deliberation.

The duties of an American bishop are arduous, and the station a highly responsible and unenviable one. The nurture of so many small societies, scattered over so large a surface of territory; the painful admonition of all who go astray; the examination and ordination of suitable candidates for the ministry; the visitations of the churches, at great distances from each other, for confirmation and other Episcopal duties; the attendance upon the state, diocesan, and general conventions; the peculiar business of each member of the house of bishops, as prescribed by the canons;—these, and many other things incident to the of fice, superadded to the ordinary business of a parish church, and the common and indispensable concerns of domestic life, made the more pressing by reason of there being no episcopal salary to defray the very large, increas ing, and unavoidable expenses of the bishopric, present a view of the labours and difficulties attending the office, which may readily lead a considerate mind to a refusal of the proffered honour. With a distinct perception of these several considerations, Dr. Parker, after deliberating maturely upon the subject, thought he ought not to decline to enter the path of duty that lay before him, arduous and laborious as it was.

He was consecrated in New-York, at the General Convention, on the 16th day of September, 1804; a sermon (afterwards published) was delivered on the occasion, by the venerable Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, who, assisted by Bishop Claggett, of Maryland, Bishop Jarvis, of Connecticut, and Bishop Moore, of New-York, performed the office of consecration.

"Having received consecration, he returned to his family and parish; and, ere he had discharged a single duty of his new dignity, was seized with his last fatal disorder." 99*

Funeral Sermon, page 12.