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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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Volume 9 Page 260
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 193 Church (founded by Dame Margaret Her, Lady Yester, in 1647), it was found necessary to rebuild it. While the work was in progress, an arrangement was entered into, by which Mr. Black obtained permission to officiate every Sabbath forenoon in the Chapel of Ease belonging to St. Cuthbert’s parish. The new church having been completed with as little delay as possible, was opened for worship on the 8th December 1805. This was a consummation to which Rlr. Black had no doubt anxiously looked forward ; but he was permitted little more than to witness its accomplishment. About the middle of February following, he was seized with a fever, and died on the 25th of the same month. On the evening previous, a large body of the congregation and other friends assembled in Lady Yester’s Church, and offered up prayer for his recovery-a circumstance strongly indicative of the peculiar estimation in which he was held. His habits of life were simple, his temper mild, and his manners gentle. In compliance with a reiterated desire on the part of the public, a volume of his sermons, with a brief memoir of the author, was given to the public a short time after his demise. A second edition was published in 1812 ; and the work is now, we believe, seldom to be met with. Mr. Black married, in 1795, Miss Agnes Wood, daughter of George Wood of Warriston, Esq., and left six children. These were much esteemed. No. CCXXXIX. THOMAS JEFFERSON, ESQ., PRESIDENT OX THE UNITED STATES OF AVERICA. THISP ortrait of PRESIDENJTE FFERSOwNho, died on the 4th July 1826, was etched by the artist from an original miniature forwarded to him from America. Mr. Jefferson, descended from a family of consideration in Virginia, was born in 1743. He received an excellent classical education-studied law-was well acquainted with geography; natural history, and astronomy-and devotedly attached to literature and the fine arts. Elected in his twenty-fifth year a member of the Virginia Assembly, he was early distinguished by his abilities, and for the decided tone of hostility he assumed towards the mother country. He next became a member of the Old Congress, and was an active promoter of those measures which led to the Revolution. From 1777 till 1779 he was engaged with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. White in the construction of a code of laws abridged from the English statutes; and, in 1780, he was chosen Governor of Virginia, which office he held during the remainder of the War of Independence. VOL. 11. 2 c
Volume 9 Page 261
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