Smith, William R

Smith, William R., a Presbyterian minister, and son of Robert Smith; D.D., was born in Pequea, Pa., May 10, 1752. He graduated at Princeton, N.J., in 1773, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Newcastle, Del., in 1776, and was settled as pastor of the Second Church in Wilmington about 1786. He resigned his charge in 1796, and became pastor of the Reformed Dutch churches of Harlingen and Shannock, N.J., in which relation he died, about the year 1815. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Dewitt writes, "I remember him while I was studying theology at New Brunswick, 1810-12. He was plain in his manners, a judicious and instructive preacher, without much power of elocution; a faithful pastor, and amiable and exemplary in his spirit and deportment." See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 3, 173.