7. William Smith (1727–1803) will appear frequently in this and succeeding volumes. Born in Aberdeen, educated under the auspices of the Society for the Education of Parochial Schoolmasters, a student at the University of Aberdeen in 1743–47 (there is no record of his taking a degree), after teaching several years he came to New York, 1751, as tutor of the sons of Col. Josiah Martin of Long Island. He became a frequent contributor to the press in prose and verse, prepared a letter (unpublished) on freedom of the press in connection with the prosecution of James Parker (see above, p. 311 n), and wrote several tracts on education to promote the establishment of a college in New York. One of these, The College of Mirania 1753, attracted BF’s attention because it emphasized training for citizenship and recognized the importance of educating for the “mechanic professions” as well as for divinity, law, medicine, and public service. Smith visited Philadelphia in May and June 1753. He expressed his favorable impression of the Academy in a poem on the subject addressed to the trustees. Though BF hoped he might remain in Philadelphia and Samuel Johnson thought he would be a good tutor for the proposed college in New York, Smith returned to England for ordination (December 1753) and with a view of settling there permanently. He returned to America the following spring, however, and was elected rector of the Academy. He became provost when the institution was re-chartered as the College of Philadelphia, 1755. From this time until 1779 Smith was its dominant, and often its most controversial, figure. He contributed importantly to the culture of Pennsylvania by his sympathetic encouragement of such young men as Francis Hopkinson, Thomas Godfrey, Jr., and Jacob Duché in literature, Benjamin West in painting, and John Morgan in medicine. Oxford and Aberdeen in 1759 and Trinity College, Dublin, in 1763 made him a doctor of divinity.

Smith was no less active in the political, ecclesiastical, and scientific life of the colony. He was a prominent Mason, a secretary of the APS, and made observations of the transit of Venus with David Rittenhouse, 1769. A strong Anglican, he favored the establishment of an American bishopric, which he hoped to fill—a hope he long held, often revived, but never realized. He was an outspoken supporter of the Proprietary interest, favored measures to reduce the German influence in Pennsylvania, and publicly condemned the Assembly for refusing to take aggressive military measures in the French and Indian war. Partly as a result he was twice jailed for publishing seditious libels, 1758. He opposed the Stamp Act and subsequent imperial measures, though he was not an advocate of separation.

When the Pennsylvania Assembly abrogated the charter of the College in 1779, removing all its officers, Smith went to Maryland, where he was rector of Chester parish, Kent Co., and established a school, which was chartered, 1782, as Washington College. He was chairman of a committee of the Episcopal Church to revise the prayer book for American use, 1785. When the charter of the College of Philadelphia was restored in 1789, Smith returned as provost; but he was left out when the College and the new University of the State of Pennsylvania were united, 1791.

Despite all this, Smith was not respected or even liked, and he rarely enjoyed the confidence of leading men. He drank too much, was opinionated and unreliable. Ezra Stiles thought him “a contemptible drunken Character! of tolerable academic general Knowledge. But immoral, haughty, irreligious, and profane, avaricious and covetous, a consummate Hypocrite in Religion and Politics!” Franklin B. Dexter, ed., Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles (N.Y., 1901), II, 338. John Adams summed him up more briefly: “There is an appearance of Art.” Works (Boston, 1850–56), II, 360.

Smith’s relations with BF, which began so cordially, as this letter shows, soon deteriorated under the pressure of Pennsylvania politics until they became bitter enemies (see, for example, BF to Mary Stevenson, March 25, 1763). Yet it was Smith of all people whom the APS asked to deliver Franklin’s eulogy. It was an eloquent and unexceptionable address, but a family tradition relates that Smith’s daughter afterwards protested to him, “I don’t think you believed one-tenth part of what you said of old Ben Lightning-rod. Did you?” and that Smith “laughed heartily” in reply. There is a less unpleasant tale of Smith’s reaction to news of BF’s death, which was brought him during a thunderstorm. His guests included Thomas McKean, Thomas Willing, Henry Hill, and David Rittenhouse. Smith wrote at once the following graceful tribute:

Not to be outdone, Willing wrote another:

Horace W. Smith, Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, D.D. (Phila., 1880), II, 324–5, 344; Albert F. Gegenheimer, William Smith, Educator and Churchman, 1727–1803 (Phila., 1943); DAB.

8. A General Idea of the College of Mirania (N.Y., 1753). Smith had already published Some Thoughts on Education (N.Y., 1752) and a proposal for Indian education in Indian Songs of Peace (N.Y., 1752). Gegenheimer, Smith, pp. 8–10, 14–29.

9. Colonel Martin’s sons, Josiah and William, both attended the Academy of Philadelphia, where William died, 1754.

1. Francis Alison (1705–1779), born in Co. Donegal, Ireland, educated at the University of Glasgow, came to America, 1735, as a private tutor. He became Presbyterian minister at New London, Pa., 1737, where he opened a private school and then an academy, 1743, which received the patronage of the Synod of Philadelphia. When David Martin (see above, pp. 214n, 222n) died in December 1751 Alison was invited to become rector of the Academy of Philadelphia; after some hesitation he agreed to be master of the Latin school only. He became vice-provost when the institution became the College of Philadelphia. Despite a short temper, he taught there successfully for 27 years, and served at the same time as assistant minister of the First Presbyterian Church. His relations with BF were later strained. BF to Deborah Franklin, Dec. 13, 1766. Ezra Stiles considered Alison “a great Literary Character” in ethics, history, and literature (though less strong in the sciences) and “the greatest Classical Scholar in America especially in Greek.” Literary Diary, II, 338. In 1777 he and others protested to the Council of Safety the “interruptions [quartering troops in the college buildings] which we have met with in the important Business of Education.” Yale and Princeton gave him the degree of master of arts, and Glasgow made him a doctor of divinity, 1758. Montgomery, Hist. Univ. Pa. pp. 162–6; DAB; see above, II, 392.

2. Theophilus Grew (see above, II, 29 n), professor of mathematics in the Academy and College of Philadelphia.

3. On the Loganian Library, see above, III, 401 n, and the deed of trust establishing the library, Aug. 28, 1754.

4. Some Thoughts on Education (N.Y., 1752).

5. See above, III, 397.