Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/323

Rh large has had reason to rejoice in his fidelity and wisdom. In the management of the Widows' Fund, established by act of parliament in the year 1744, Sir Henry took a deep interest, and acted as its collector for upwards of forty yean. He was also one of the original members of the society of the Sons of the Clergy, and, by his influence and his exertions, contributed largely to its success. He was, besides, a warm friend to every reasonably adjusted scheme, that had for its object the amelioration of the moral and physical condition of mankind. In the year 1826, he was bereaved of his wife, (Susan, daughter to Mr James Robertson Barclay, of Keavil, W. S., to whom he had been married in 1773, and who was his cousin;) while his own health, which had been generally good, was also undergoing a decline. In the month of August of the following year, 1B27, Sir Henry himself died, after an illness of considerable duration. At the time of his death, he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and the fifty-sixth of his ministry.

The personal character of Sir Henry Moncrieff was, in the highest degree, respectable, and his conduct, in every relation of life, most exemplary. He had thoroughly studied the whole scheme of the gospel; and, from full and deliberate conviction, as well as from its experimental application to his own personal need, he threw himself, without pretension and without reserve, upon the peculiar doctrines of the church to which he belonged, as those which could alone insure his eternal interests.

In his ministerial capacity, he but rarely indulged in what is termed the pathetic; yet there was often, particularly towards the close of his life, a tenderness in his modes of expression, as well as in the accents of his voice, which came home to the heart, with the energy of pathos itself. As an author, Sir Henry was well known, and highly esteemed. The works which give him a claim to this title, are, "A Life of Dr John Erskine;" three volumes of sermons, and a small work on the constitution of the church of Scotland, which, as well as one of the volumes of sermons, was published posthumously. The first is an interesting record of the life of a most excellent and public-spirited minister, and contains much valuable information respecting ecclesiastical affairs in Sootland. The sermons abound with luminous expositions and practical applications of divine truth. All of these publications were well received by the public. That Sir Henry was admitted by all parties to be no ordinary man, is sufficiently evinced by the following character of him, drawn up at the unanimous request of the General Assembly of the church of Scotland, by the Rev. Dr Macgill, professor of divinity in the college of Glasgow, their moderator at the time, and inserted in the records of court; an honour which has been bestowed on but few individuals in the Scottish church. Having enjoyed the friendship and the confidence of Sir Henry from his earliest years, as well as from kindred habits of thought and feeling, no man could be better qualified than the reverend doctor to do justice to the subject.

"The Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, whose death and character have been brought before the Assembly, was elected to be the general collector of the fund for the widows and children of this church, in 1784, and continued to discharge, till his death, the duties of that important office. During the long period of forty-three years, he received annually the thanks of the General Assembly, for the able, faithful, and affectionate manner in which he fulfilled the trust reposed in him; and never were thanks bestowed more deservedly, and with more full or heartfelt approbation. In the discharge of the difficult, and often delicate duties of his office, he united the highest honour and fidelity, with the most consummate prudence, and the greatest tenderness and forbearance; so that it is stated of him, by those who were connected with him