Smith, Hezekiah, Dd

Smith, Hezekiah, D.D., a Baptist minister, was born on Long Island, N.Y., April 21, 1737, and joined the Baptist Church in New York city in his nineteenth year. He began his education at Hopewell Academy, N.J., and graduated from Princeton in 1762. He was ordained in Charleston, S.C., where he preached until the spring of 1764, when he went to New England. He organized the First Baptist Church in Haverill, Mass., May 9, 1765; and was recognized as its pastor Nov. 12, 1766. In 1776 Mr. Smith was appointed chaplain in the American army, and continued to serve until the close of the war. He greatly assisted in the establishment and prosperity of Brown University, and continued to be pastor of the First Church, Haverill, for forty years, when, after preaching from Joh 12:24, he was smitten with paralysis, and died, after a week's illness, Jan. 22, 1805. Dr. Smith was a man of commanding presence and winning manners, and was strictly evangelical. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6, 97.