Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/466

434 (18G3); "The Bishop Potter Memorial House" (1868); and "Taopi and his Friends, or Indians' Wrongs and Rights," with Bishop Henry B. Whip- ple and the Rev. Samuel Dutton Hinman (1869). WELSH, Thomas, soldier, b. in Columbia, Pa., 5 May, 1824; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 14 Aug., 1863. He received a common-school education, and en- gaged in the lumber trade. Enlisting as a private for the Mexican war, he was wounded at Buena Vista, and promoted lieutenant for gallantry. At the beginning of the civil war he raised a com- pany, was mustered into the volunteer service as captain, and was elected lieutenant-colonel of the 2d Pennsylvania regiment, which served in the Shenandoah valley until it was disbanded at the end of three months. He re-entered the service as colonel of the 45th Pennsylvania volunteers, and commanded a brigade at South Mountain and An- tietam, as also at Fredericksburg, where he won promotion by his services on the right centre, being commissioned as brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1863. He was transferred to the west with the 9th armv corps, and, after doing duty for some time in Kentucky, was sent to Vicksburg. After the fall of that place he marched with Gen. William T. Sherman to Jackson, Miss., and con- tracted a malarial fever, from which he died while travelling homeward.

WELTON, Richard, English non-juring bish- op, b. in England about 1675; d. in Lisbon, Portu- gal, in 1726. He was rector of St. Mary's, White- chapel, London, and in 1722 was consecrated to the episcopate by Dr. Ralph Taylor, one of the non- juring bishops. A short time afterward he assist- ed Dr. Taylor in consecrating Rev. John Talbot, then on a visit to England, who for many years had urged the establishment of episcopacy in the North American colonies. In 1723 the vestry of Christ church, Philadelphia, which was without a rector, prayed the bishop of London to send them " such a gentleman as may be a credit to our com- munion, an ornament to. the profession, and a true propagator of the gospel." Six months having passed without an appointment being made, on 27 July, 1724, they invited Dr. Welton, who had ar- rived in town a month before, to take charge of the church. He entered at once upon his duties, served with great acceptance for two years, when he was commanded to return to England. Receiv- ing a testimonial of his conduct from the church- wardens, he sailed for Lisbon in Jan., 1726, where he died in the autumn, refusing to commune with the English clergy. It is said that among his effects was found " an episcopal seal which he had made use of in Pensilvania," where " he assumed and exercised privily and by stealth the character and functions of a bishop." Dr. Francis L. Hawks as- serts, in his " Ecclesiastical Contributions," that " there is direct evidence from the letters of some of the missionaries that both he and Dr. Talbot administered confirmation and wore the robes of a bishop." It was believed in the provinces that Dr. Welton also ordained clergymen, and these se- cret acts occasioned his recall.

WEMYSS, Francis Courtney, theatrical man- ager, b. in London, 13 May, 1797 ; d. in New York city, 5 Jan., 1859. He appeared at the Adelphi, London, in April, 1821, and at the Chestnut street theatre, Philadelphia, in December, 1822, as Vapid in " The Dramatist." and afterward in the principal cities of the United States. He was subsequently for many years a manager of theatres in Washing- ton, Wheeling, Va., Wilmington, Del., Baltimore, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. He was one of the founders and a director of the American dramatic fund association of New York city, and its secre- tary from 1852 till his death. He was the author of " Twenty-six Years as an Actor and Manager " (2 vols., New York, 1847) ; " Chronology of the Ameri- can Stage, 1752-1852" (1852); and " Theatrical Biog- raphy " (New York) ; and edited " The Minor Dra- ma," to which he also contributed (7 vols.. 1848-'52).

WENDELL, John Lansing, lawyer, b. in Al- bany, N. Y., 2 Jan., 1785 : d. in Hartford, Conn., 19 Dec, 1861. He was a descendant of one of the Dutch families of New York. He was educated in Albany and Cambridge, N. Y., his family having removed to the latter place about 1795. He there entered the law-office of his brother, Gerritt Wen- dell, became a member of the Albany bar, subse- quently judge of Washington county, and was for many years reporter of the supreme court of the state of New York. He published "Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Judicature of New York, 1828-'41-' (26 vols., Albany, 1829-'42), and " Digest of Cases, Supreme Court of New York, 1828-'35 " (1836) ; and edited " Starkie's Law of Slander " (2 vols., Albany, 1843), and " Blackstone's Commentaries " (4 vols., New York city, 1847).

WENTWORTH, William, colonist, b. in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, in 1615; d. in Dover, N. H., 16 March, 1697. He was a follower of the Rev. John Wheelwright, came with him to Massachusetts in 1636, and was associated with him in his difficulties with the Massachusetts government respecting his Antinomian opinions. With Wheelwright and thirty-three others he signed, on 4 Aug., 1639, “A combination for a government at Exeter, N. H.,” of which town he was an early settler. Subsequently he removed to Wells, Mass., but he afterward settled in Dover, N. H., where he was a ruling elder in the church and often preached. He supplied the pulpit in Exeter, after Wheelwright's return to England, as late as 1693. In 1689 he was instrumental in saving a garrison from destruction by the Indians. All the Wentworths in the United States are descended from him.—His grandson, John, lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 16 Jan., 1671; d. there, 12 Dec., 1730, became a captain in the merchant marine, was appointed by Queen Anne a councillor for New Hampshire in 1711, made a justice of the common pleas in 1713, and in 1717 became lieutenant-governor of the province, which was then dependent on Massachusetts.—William's great-great-grandson, Joshua, soldier, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., in 1742; d. there, 19 Oct., 1809, was colonel of the 1st New Hampshire regiment in 1776, was elected to the legislature, served for four years as state senator, and was appointed a delegate to the Continental congress, but did not attend.—William's great-great-great-grandson, Tappan, lawyer, b. in Dover, N. H., 24 Sept., 1802; d. in Boston, Mass., 12 June, 1875, received a public-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1826, and practised in Great Falls, N. H. In 1833 he removed to Lowell, where he was a member of the town council in 1836-'41. He served in the legislature as a Whig in 1851 and as a Republican in 1859 and 1863-'4, and in the state senate in 1848-'9 and 1865-'6. He was elected to congress as a Whig, and served from 4 March, 1853, till 3 March, 1855.—John's son, Benning, governor of New Hampshire, b. in Portsmouth, N. H., 24 July, 1696; d. there, 14 Oct., 1770, was graduated at Harvard in 1715, and became a merchant in Portsmouth, which town he represented in the assembly. On 12 Oct., 1734, he was appointed a king's councillor, and when New Hampshire was made a distinct province in 1741 he