Pemberton, Israel

Pemberton, Israel (1), a Quaker preacher of great usefulness, was the son of Phineas Pemberton, one of the early settlers of Pennsylvania, and was born in Bucks County of that state in 1684. He was apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia, and subsequently became one of the most considerable merchants of that city. He took an active part in the public affairs of the province, and was for nineteen years a member of the General Assembly. Having been trained religiously, he sustained through life an unblemished character by his justice, integrity, and uprightness. He was endowed with a peculiar sweetness of disposition, which rendered his company agreeable and instructive. He also devoted himself to the ministration of the truth, and approved himself a faithful elder, manifesting by his meekness and humility that, having submitted himself to the discipline of the cross, he was qualified to counsel others in the way of holiness. While attending the funeral of an acquaintance, he was seized with a fit, supposed to be apoplexy, and expired in about an hour, Jan. 19, 1754. See Janney, Hist. of Friends, 3:334.