Bostwick, David

Bostwick, David a Presbyterian minister, was born at New Milford, Conn., in 1721. He entered Yale College, but before graduating left, and completed Ilis studies with Burr at Newark, and was for some time his assistant in the academy. He was ordained by the New York Presbytery, and installed pastor of the Church at Jamaica, L. I., Oct. 9. 1745. Davies heard him preach before the synod in 1753, and said of him, "I think he has the best style of extempore preaching of any man I ever heard." He had been appointed on a mission to Virginia and North Carolina, but he never went. He continued at Jamaica ten years, enjoying the affections of his people and the town. At a meeting of the freeholders in 1753, only three dissented from giving to the elders and deacons certain lands and the right to sell them for the support of a Presbyterian minister forever. His relation being dissolved at Jamaica, he was installed in New York, and died there, Nov. 12, 1763. A sermon which he preached before the synod in 1758 was printed, with the title, Self Disclaimed and Christ Exalted. As a preacher he was uncommonly popular, his gifts being of the highest order. After his death, his treatise, entitled, A Fair and Rational Vindication of the Right of Infants to the Ordinance of Baptism: was published in New York and reprinted in London. (W.P.S.)