Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/457

Rh from 1822 as principal of the Pennsylvania insti- tution for the deaf and dumb, at Philadelphia. His success in these offices gave him a wide impu- tation in his own field. For the last few years of his life he was a sufferer from a chronic disease.

WELD, Theodore Dwight, reformer, b. in Hampton, Conn., 23 Nov., 1803. He entered Phillips Andover academy in 1819, but was not graduated, on account of failing eyesight. In 1830 he became general agent of the Society for the promotion of manual labor in literary institutions, publishing afterward a valuable report (New York, 1833). He entered Lane theological seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1833, but left that institution on the suppression of the Anti-slavery society of the seminary by the trustees. Mr. Weld then became well known as an anti-slavery lecturer, but in 1836 he lost his voice, and was appointed by the American anti-slavery society editor of its books and pamphlets. In 1841-'3 he labored in Washington in aid of the anti-slavery members of congress, and in 1854 he established at Eagleswood, N. J., a school in which he received pupils irrespective of sex and color. In 1864 he removed to Hyde Park, near Boston, and devoted himself to teaching and lecturing. Mr. Weld is the author of many pamphlets, and of &ldquo;The Power of Congress over the District of Columbia&rdquo; (New York, 1837); &ldquo;The Bible against Slavery&rdquo; (1837); &ldquo;American Slavery as it Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses&rdquo; (1839); and &ldquo;Slavery and the Internal Slave Trade in the United States&rdquo; (London, 1841). &mdash; His wife, Angelina Emily Grimké, reformer, b. in Charleston, S. C., 20 Feb., 1805, is the daughter of Judge John F. Grimké, of South Carolina, but in 1828, with her sister, Sarah M. Grimke (q. v.), she joined the Society of Friends in Philadelphia, afterward emancipating the slaves that she inherited from her parents in 1836. She was the author of an &ldquo;Appeal to the Christian Women of the South,&rdquo; which was republished in England with an introduction by George Thompson, and was associated with her sister in delivering public addresses under the auspices of the American anti-slavery society, winning a reputation for eloquence. The controversy that the appearance of the sisters as public speakers caused was the beginning of the woman's rights agitation in this country. She married Mr. Weld on 14 May, 1838, and was afterward associated with him in educational and reformatory work. Besides the work noticed above, she wrote &ldquo;Letters to Catherine E. Beecher,&rdquo; a review of the slavery question (Boston, 1837).

WELDE, Thomas, b. in England about 1590 ; d. there, 23 March, 1662. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1613, became a minister of the es- tablished church, and had charge for some time of a parish in Terling, Essex; but his Puritan opinions caused him to emigrate to Boston, where he arrived on 5 June, 1632. In July he became minister of the 1st church in Roxbury, Mass., where, after the following November, John Eliot, the "apostle," was associated with him. He was active in opposition to Anne Hutchinson and her doctrines, took a conspicuous part in her trial, and afterward wrote " A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of the Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infested the Churches of New England " (London, 1644 ; 2d ed., 1692). A shorter version, entitled " Antinomians and Familists Con- demned," which appeared about the same time, may be the original ; and some authorities maintain that Gov. John Winthrop was the chief author. The book was answered by Rev. John Wheelwright in his " Mercurius Americanus " (1645). Welde was also associated with John Eliot and Richard Mather in preparing, by request of the authorities, the translation of the Psalms in metre that is usually called the " Bay Psalm-Book," and is entitled " The Whole Book of Psalms Faith- fully translated into English Metre " (Cambridge, 1640). This was the first volume that was printed in New England. Welde was sent with Hugh Peters to England in 1641 as an agent of the colony, but was dismissed in 1646, and requested to return. He did not comply, but remained in England, and was minister of a church at Gates- head, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He accompa- nied Lord Forbes to Ireland, and, after residing there for some time, returned to England, where he was ejected from his living for non-conformity in 1662. Besides the. works already noticed, Welde was the author of " An Answer to W. R„ his Nar- ration of Opinions and Practices of the New Eng- land Churches " (1644). With three other cler- gymen he wrote " The Perfect Pharisee under Monkish Holiness," an attack on the Quakers (1654), and " The False Jew Detected." — One of his sons, Thomas, remained in New England, and was in the general court in 1676-'7.

WELDON, Charles Wesley, Canadian member of parliament, b. in Richibucto, New Brunswick, 27 Feb., 1830. He was the eldest son of John W. Weldon, judge of the supreme court of New Bruns- wick. He was graduated at King's college, Wind- sor, Nova Scotia, in 1847, was admitted to the bar of New Brunswick in 1852, became a queen's counsel in 1852, and was elected to the Dominion parliament in 1878, 1882, and 1887. He opposed the confederation of the provinces, and is opposed to the national policy and the present (1889) ad- ministration. He is president of the Law society of St. John, a governor of King's college, and president of the New Brunswick electric telegraph company, and is connected with several other financial corporations.

WELDON, Richard Chapman, educator, b. in Sussex, New Brunswick, 19 Jan., 1849. He was graduated at Wesleyan college, Sackville, New Brunswick, and received the degree of Ph. D. at Yale in 1872. He afterward studied international law at Heidelberg, and was called to the bar of New Brunswick. He was a professor in the Wes- leyan college, 1875-83, and since the latter date has been professor of constitutional law in Dal- housie university, Halifax, and is also dean of the law faculty there. He was elected to the Domin- ion parliament in February, 1887, for Albert coun- ty, New Brunswick.

WELLBOON, Marshall Johnson, lawyer, b. in Putnam county, Ga., 29 May, 1808 ; d. in Columbus, Ga., 16 Oct., 1874. After passing through the junior year in the University of Georgia, he studied law and was admitted to the bar at nineteen years of age by special act of the legislature. At twenty-one he was elected to the legislature of Georgia, and in 1842 he became judge of the superior court of the Chattahoochee circuit. Subsequently, after a prolonged trip in Europe, he served one term in congress in 1849-'51, having been chosen as a Democrat. In 1858 he began to think seriously on religious subjects, and in 1864 was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Columbus, Ga. From that time until his death he was pastor of various churches, serving them without compensation. In the earlier part of his life he was a brilliant, accomplished, and successful man of the world, and in his later years, by the consent of all who knew him, a man of truly apostolic devoutness and zeal.