Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/99

Rh Jacob Boehm and William Law; in consequence of which his sermons were not always understood. In social discourse, he could be exceedingly entertaining yet from the moment of turning the conversation to religion, he was in the clouds."

Dr. PetersPeters' [sic] interest in the College and Academy was second only to that of Franklin, and he shared in all the counsels of the latter in its inception and firm establishment. He succeeded the latter as President of the Board and continued the leadership for many years. His attendance at the meetings was more constant than any other, not even excepting William Coleman, the only interval of any note being that from July 1764 to December 1765 inclusive. The last time he attended the meetings was on 19 March 1776. At the meeting of 5 October, 1778, Mr. Robert Morris by election succeeded him as Trustee. His connection with the Proprietary interests furthered the material recognition of the new institution by the Penns, and both financially and politically the association was valuable. In Franklin's early absences abroad, Dr. Peters with the Trustees and Dr. Smith in the Faculty kept in motion the busy work of the College. But, on the other hand, this particular influence may signally have failed of advantage in the trying times of the Revolution, and have contributed to those suspicions which claimed to be the basis of the charter abrogation of 1779, which alone could have been prevented by Franklin's presence, who was then too far across the seas on public duties to wrestle with a suspicious Governor and unstable Legislature.

Dr. Peters' brother, William, was father of Richard Peters, a graduate of the College and Academy in 1761, Judge of the U. S. District Court from 1791 to 1828, a Trustee of the College from 1789 to 1791; he was the owner of Belmont Mansion on the Schuylkill, now in Fairmount Park.