Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/440

 riu.ME

PRIME

death various of his poems were collected and published as : Musciituht : S/re Canibroinyoma- chia; The Mouse-Trap: or the Battle of the Welsh and the Mice: in Latin and English. With other Poems in different languages. By an American (1840). He died in Huntington, L.I., N.Y.,Oc-t. 31. 1791.

PRIME, Ebenezer, clergyman, was born in Milford. Conn., July 21, 1700 ; grandson of James Prime of Huguenot descent, who emigrated from Doncaster. Yorkshire, England, with his brother Mark, and settled in Milford, Conn., in 1644. He was graduated at Yale. A.B., 1718, A.M., 1721 ; studied for the ministry under the Rev. Samuel Andrew, A.M., president i^ro tempore of Y'ale, 1707-19 ; was assistant to the Rev. Eliphalet Jones at Huntington, L.I., N.Y., 1719-23; was ordained to the Congregational ministry, June 5, 1723. and was pastor at Huntington, 1723-79, organizing the presbytery of Long Island in 1747. He was a staunch patriot during the Revolution, although he suffered much. He was driven from liis home and church in his old age, both build- ings being occupied by British troops who de- stroj^ed his library, and after his death Count Rum ford tore down the church and used the materials in building barracks and block-houses in the grave yard. He was married first, Oct. 2, 1723, to Margaret, daughter of Nathaniel Sylves- ter of Shelter Island ; secondly, Nov. 12, 1730, to Experience, daughter of Benjamin Youngs of Southold, L.I.,N,Y., and thirdly. March 10, 1751, to Hannah Carll of Huntington, L.I., N.Y. He published : Ordination to the Gospel Ministry, sermon (1754); Tlie Pastor at Large Vindicated (1758); Tlie Divine Listitution of Preaching the Gospel Considered (1758), and Hie Lnportance of the Divine Presence with the Armies of God's People in their Martial Enterprises (1759). He died in Huntington. L.L.N.Y., Sept. 25, 1779.

PRIME, Edward Dorr Griffin, clergyman and author, was born in Cambridge, N.Y''., Nov. 2, 1814; son of the Rev. Nathaniel Scudder (q.v.) and Julia Ann (Jermain) Prime. Edward D. G. Prime was prepared for college at Washington academy. Cambridge, N.Y. ; was graduated at Union. A.B., 1832. A.M., 1835. and taught in his father's academy at Mount Pleasant, Sing Sing, 1832-35. He studied medicine under Dr. Adrian K. Hoffman, but abandoned it for the ministry, and was graduated at Princeton Theological seminary in 1838. He was licensed to preach by the North River presbytery, May 16,1858; was assistant pastor of the church at Scotchtown, N.Y., 1838-47; was ordained. June 12. 1839, and was sole pastor. 1847-51. He spent the wintersof 1850 and 1851 in New Orleans, La., and Augusta, Ga., respectively ; was pastor of the Presbyterian church on Eighty-Sixth St., New York city, 1852-

86 ; was editor of the New York Observer, 1853-54, during the absence of his brother Samuel Irenseus in Europe, associate editor of that paper, 1854-85, and editor-in-chief, 1885-86, when he resigned, owing to ill-health. He was chaplain of the American embassy in Rome, 1854-55 ; traveled extensively in Europe during that sum- mer, and made a journey around the world, 1869- 70. He contributed to the Observer while on his travels under the signature of " Eusebius," and preached and lectured on the religious conditions of various countries, on his return, in New York, Philadelphia and other large cities. He was married first, Sept. 26, 1839, to Maria Darlington, daughter of John S. Wilson of Princeton, N.J., and secondly, June 14, 1860, to Abbie Davis, daughter of the Rev, William Goodell of Cou- statitinople. He received the degree D.D. from Jefferson college, Pa., in 1857. He is the author of : Around the World : Sketches of Travel Tlirough Many Lands and Over Many Seas (1872); Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; or Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, D.D. (1876); Notes, Genealogical, Biographical and Biblio- graphical of the Prime Family, printed privately (1888). He died in New York city, April 7, 1891. PRIME, Nathaniel Scudder, clergyman, was born in Huntington, L.I., N.Y''., April 21, 1785; son of Dr. Benjamin Youngs and Mary (Wheel- wright) Greaton Prime. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1804, A.M., 1807 ; studied theology in Huntington, Long Island, under the Rev. William Schenck (Prince- ton, 1767), pastor of the Presbyterian church at Huntington ; was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Long Island, Oct. 10, 1805, and performed missionary work for several months. He was pastor at Sag Harbor, L.I., 1806-09 ; was married, July 5, 1808, to Julia Ann, daughter of Maj. John and Margaret (Pierson) Jermain of that place ; was ordained, Oct. 24, 1809. and was pastor at Smithtown and Fresh Pond, 1809-11 ; at Milton, 1811-12, and at Cambridge, 1813-30, being also principal of Washington academy, Cambridge, 1821-30. He was principal of Mount Pleasant academy. Sing Sing, N.Y., 1830-35, and in 1831 established a seminar}^ for young women at Sing Sing under the charge of his daughter, which acquired a high reputation. He was also pastor at Sing Sing, 1831-35, and engaged in missionary work in Newburgh, N. Y., 1835-43. He was active in moral reform in 1811, and preached a temper- ance sermon which resulted in the presbytery of Long Island voting against the use of ardent spirits and wine. He was a trustee of Middlebury college, Vermont. 1822-26; of Williams college, Massachusetts, 1826-31, and received the degree D.D. from the College of New Jersey in 1848. He is the author of: A Collection of Hymns