was regularly licensed to preach the gospel; he having never called upon the committee, nor shown his credentials to any member of the Presbytery. The Presbytery conceive that the supplication of Mingo Creek, Horse-Shoe Bottom, and Pike Run congregations, for a man to preside in drawing up a call for Mr. H. Morrison, Jr., cannot be granted for the reasons assigned above. Mr. Hugh Morrison, Sen., a candidate from the Presbytery of Roote, in Ireland, applied to be taken under the care of this Presbytery; but the Presbytery did not see their way clear to admit him.

G. Latimer applied to Presbytery, requesting a rehearing of the affair between him and Deborah Ross. The Presbytery agree that he have liberty to offer whatever new light he thinks may be of use to him upon the subject; and if it shall appear that he affords new light, that then they will reconsider the affair. The Presbytery appoint Messrs. Alexander M'Clure, Æneas M'Allister, James Moor, George Shields, John Fulton, and William Beard, elders, to meet at John Man's, near Long Run, with Mr. M'Millan, who, with them, is appointed to hear and determine in an affair between a certain John Hamilton and Sarah Reyburn, on Tuesday week; and that a copy of this minute be sent to said Sarah, who is ordered to attend, as well as said Hamilton, with what evidence they have. Messrs. John Brice (24) and James Hughes

(24) "The Rev. John Brice was a native of Hartford County, Maryland. He removed with the family to Western Pennsylvania, and received his education chiefly under the direction of the Rev. Joseph Smith. He studied theology partly under Mr. Smith, and partly under Mr. Dod. He and James Hughes were students together at Mr. Smith's, and were licensed together, April 15th, 1788, by the Presbytery of Redstone. By the same Presbytery he was ordained and installed pastor of the congregations Three Ridges and Forks of Wheeling, April 22d, 1790. When the Presbytery of Ohio was formed in 1793, he was one of its original members. In the above-named congregations, he labored until about the year 1807, when, on account of ill-health, the pastoral relation between him and them was dissolved. He still continued, however, to preach the gospel in Green County, Pennsylvania, and in the

(25) appeared before Presbytery, and offered themselves to be taken on trials in order to their being licensed to preach the gospel. The Presbytery proceeded to converse with them

adjacent parts of Virginia, as often as health would permit, until the 18th of April, 1810, when he was dismissed to connect himself with the Presbytery of Lancaster. He died the next year, August 26th, 1811, aged fifty-one years. He was a man of nervous temperament, subject, occasionally, to great despondency of mind, but of deep piety. His labors were attended with a divine blessing, and many rich fruits of his ministry have appeared, since his decease, both in his former charge and in the country adjacent. The late Rev. John Brice M'Coy, of the Presbytery of Washington, who died at Wheeling October 18th, 1841, was his grandson."-Append. Life of Macurdy.

"The Rev. Mr. Brice married one of the sisters of James and John Kerr, both sons-in-law of the Rev. Dr. Power, and was called to Wheeling, where he became pastor of two congregations-one at West Alexander, and the other at the Forks of Wheeling, near Sheppard's. In the summer of 1792, I think it was, I was living in Wheeling, when John Kerr and his sister died on the same day. Mrs. Brice died on Sabbath-day, whilst her husband was two or more miles distant, administering the sacrament I was boarding in the family of a James Martin, whose wife attended Mrs. Brice in her last moments. At that time Mrs. Martin had an infant at home; and therefore, after paying the last duties to the departed, returned, and told her husband, a young woman residing in the family, and myself, that Mrs. Brice was dead; and that nearly her last words were 'My brother John will die to-day! and this night we'll meet in heaven!' We did not hear from John Kerr, who really died the same day, until the ensuing Friday; and who, we were told, made, in his last moments, a similar declaration. The circumstances which I have here related were strange; but they are stated as they occurred."-William Darby, Esq.

Mr. John Kerr's residence was on Pigeon Creek, twenty-five miles from the residence of his sister!

(25) "The Rev. James Hughes was a native of York County, Pennsylvania. His father, Rowland Hughes, emigrated from England. His parents were both esteemed for their consistent religious character; especially his mother, who was eminently pious. About the year 1780, he removed, with his mother and family, to Washington County; his father having died about a year before. His education, so far as we have been able to learn anything respecting it, was prosecuted under the direction of the Rev. Joseph Smith, of Upper Buffalo, in that county; with whom it is also probable that he studied theology." ["James

First Preacher of the Gospel licensed in the West, and first President of Man Univers C

:

on their experimental acquaintance with religion, and proposed to them several cases of conscience, and having obtained satisfaction on these points, agreed to take them on trials. The

Hughes, while with that critic, Mr. Dod, acquired, or rather in him was developed, a taste for the accuracies and intricacies of science, which he still improved until he became the president of a state university." -Letter of Rev. J. Lindley."] "He was licensed to preach the gospel April 15th, 1788, by the Presbytery of Redstone. His labors appear to have been very acceptable to the churches, as three several calls were presented to him: one from the united congregations of Short Creek and Lower Buffalo; one.from Donegal, Fairfield, and Wheatfield; and one from New Providence and the South Fork of Ten-Mile. The first of these calls he accepted, and was ordained by the same Presbytery, and installed the pastor of Short Creek and Lower Buffalo on the 21st of April, 1790."-Pres. Ad. 1845, and App. to Life of Macurdy.

The following extract from "Fragment of Recollections," written by Charles Hammond, Esq., of Cincinnati, a man of distinguished eminence and worth, and published by him in the Cincinnati Gazette in 1838, is worthy of an insertion here. We do not know to which of Mr. Hughes's churches Mr. Hammond refers, but it is not material :—

"In the month of June, 1788, an arrangement was completed for organizing a religious congregation many miles in advance of any existing congregation. Preparation was made in the depth of the forest. A rough wooden erection was constructed as a pulpit, and felled timber was arranged as seats. Thursday was the day of the week selected for the first meeting; and the sun never shone on a more genial day in the month of June. For miles around the whole population was collected together. The minister came to make his trial sermon, a young licentiate, with his young wife in company. In the tract of country I have described, the Presbyterian clergy were the religious pioneers-John M'Millan and Joseph Smith. Young men studied divinity in the private establishments of those pioneers. More than this, they acquired all the elements of such education as they possessed in these same family establishments. From these beginnings the college at Canonsburg arose. The founders were the clergymen I have named, and their few friends and associates.

"The minister who presented himself to make his trial sermon on that day was the pupil and son-in-law of the Rev. Joseph Smith.

"The Rev. James Hughes has since been well known as a faithful and unpretending preacher of the gospel in the Presbyterian church. In its infancy this church was sadly divided upon the vexed question of Psalmody. For this it was rooted out from its first locality, furnished