Covell, Lemuel

Covell, Lemuel a Baptist minister, was born in the state of New York about the middle of the last century. He was licensed by the Church in Providence, Saratoga County. Although at first poor and illiterate, so remarkable were his natural abilities that he became one of the most eminent preachers in his denomination. He was blessed with a voice of singular charm, and his address was manly and engaging. He regarded it as his mission to travel extensively among the churches of New York and New England. Not long before his death the Church in Cheshire, Mass., of which Reverend John Leland had been the pastor, called him to be his successor. He accepted their call on condition that he le allowed, a part of the time, to travel, and preach in destitute regions, under the patronage and direction of the Baptist Missionary Society of Boston. While thus engaged, in Upper Canada, he died after a short illness, in October 1806. See Benedict, Hist. of the Baptists, 2:289. (J.C.S.)