Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/570

536 30 April, 1833, surveyed the site for a fort on Pea Patch island, in Delaware river, in 1834, and was promoted brevet captain of staff in the topographi- cal engineers on 28 Jan. in the same year. He surveyed the route for a ship-canal around the Falls of Niagara in 1835-'6. and performed similar ser- vices on Lake Champlain, at Charleston, S. C, and at Cincinnati, Ohio. He went in 1837 on a mili- tary reconnoissance to the country of the Chero- kees, attained the rank of captain of engineers in 1838, and during the eight succeeding years was engaged in making triangulations and in con- structing harbor works on Lake Erie. He was superintendent of the survey of the northwestern lakes and of the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin, served under Gen. Zachary Taylor in the war with Mexico as chief of engineers, and was mortally wounded at the battle of Monterey, 21 Sept., 1846, dying the same day. He was an adept in painting, and his literary and scientific attainments were of a high order.

WILLIAMS, William R., clergyman, b. in New York city, 14 Oct., 1804 : d. there, 1 April, 1885. His father, the Rev. John Williams, came from Wales in 1795, and was pastor of a Bap- tist church in New York from 1798 till his death in 1825. The son was graduated at Columbia in 1822, and studied law with Peter A. Jay, whose Eartner be became. Religious convictions caused im to leave that profession and to devote himself to the Christian ministry. He was ordained pastor of the Amity street Baptist church in 1832. In this relation he continued until his death, though often solicited to accept various chairs in colleges and theological seminaries. Dr. Williams's library was one of the largest and choicest private collections in the country. Though he was a man of very positive convictions, his temper was gentle and eminently catholic. He was one of the foremost leaders in the councils of his own denomination, and an ac- tive manager in the great societies that are sup- ported by evangelical Christians in general, as the American tract society and the American Bible society. Columbia gave him the degree of S. T. D. in 1837, and he was a trustee of that college in 1838-'48. The degree of LL. D. was given him by Union in 1859. His chief works, besides many sermons and addresses, are "Miscellanies" (New York, 1850) ; " Religious Progress " (1850) ; and " Lectures on the Lord's Prayer" (1851). He was co-editor also of the " Baptist Library."

WILLIAMSON, Hugh, statesman, b. in West Nottingham, Pa., 5 Dec, 1735 ; d. in New York city, 22 May, 1819. He was graduated at the Col- lege of Philadelphia in 1757, studied theology, and was licensed to preach in 1759 in Connecticut. He was subsequently admitted to the presbytery of Philadelphia, and preached altogether about two years, but, partly in consequence of ill health, he was never ordained nor assumed a pastorate. He was professor of mathematics in the College of Philadelphia in 1760-'3, studied medicine at Edinburgh and Utrecht, where he took his de- gree, and on his return to this country practised successfully at Philadelphia. On 7 Jan., 1769, he was appointed one of a commission of the Ameri- can philosophical society, to which he had been elected in 1768, to observe the transits of Ve- nus and Mercury, his account of which is con- tained in vol. i. of the "Philosophical Transac- tions." In 1772 he visited the West Indies to pro- cure aid for the academy at Newark, Del., and in 1773 he proceeded to England to solicit further assistance for that institution. He was examined in February, 1774, by the privy council on the subject of the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, and other matters relating to the political state of the colonies. He afterward spent some- time on the continent, and returned to this coun- try in 1776, after the Declaration of Independ- ence, bearing im- fortant papers, n 1777 he engaged in mercantile pur- suits in Charles- ton, S. C, with a younger brother, and subsequently he practised medi- cine at Edenton, N. C. He served as surgeon in the militia of North Carolina in 1780- '2, and rendered aid to the wound- ed at the battle of Camden. He was a member of the house of commons of North Carolina in 1782, was elected to the Con- tinental congress in 1784, 1785, and 1786, and was a delegate to the convention that framed the con- stitution of the United States in 1787, as well as to the State convention to act upon it in 1789. He was elected to the 1st congress as a Federalist, re- elected to the second, and served from 19 March,. 1790, till 2 March, 1793, when he removed to New York. He married there, devoted himself to lit- erary pursuits, and was associated with De Witt Clinton in organizing the Literary and philosophi- cal society in 1814. He was an advocate of the New York canal system, and an active promoter of philanthropic, literary, and scientific institutions. Dr. Williamson was a frequent contributor to the transactions of learned societies in Europe and the United States. He published a series of essays on "Paper Currency" in 1786; fugitive articles on- "Languages in Politics" in the "American Mu- seum " ; " Observations on Navigable Canals," an essay on " Comets " in the " Transactions " of the Juiterary and philosophical society of New York ; " Discourse on the Benefits of Civil History " (New York, 1810); "Observations on the Climate of America" (1811); and "History of North Caro- lina " (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1812).

WILLIAMSON, Isaac Dowd, clergyman, b. in Pomfret, Vt., 4 April, 1807; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 26 Nov., 1876. He was a Universalist minister, on 10 Sept., 1829, at Townsend, Vt., was pastor at Albany, N. Y., from 1830 till 1837, and subsequently held charges in Baltimore, Md., New York city, Philadelphia, Mobile, Ala., Cincinnati, Ohio, Lowell, Mass., and Louisville, Ky. In 1873 he again became pastor at Cincinnati. He composed a large part of the ritual of the Order of Odd-Fellows, of which he was chaplain for many years. At different times he was editor of the "Gospel Banner," at Troy, N. Y., the "Religious Inquirer," at Hartford, Conn., the "Herald and Era," at Louisville, Ky., and the "Star in the West," at Cincinnati. He published " Argument for the Truth of Christianity" (New York, 1836); "Imposition and Defence of Universalism " (1840) ; " The Crown of Life, a Series of Discourses" (Boston, 1850) ; " Examination of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment " (Cincinnati, 1854) : " The Philosophy of Odd-Fellowship " (ia55) ; " The Philosophy of Universalism" (1866); and "Rudiments of Theological and Moral Science " (1870).