Webb, Joseph

Webb, Joseph a Presbyterian minister, was a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1715. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Church at Newark, N.J., and became a member of the Synod in 1720. He proposed to the Synod a case of conscience, but in such general and doubtful terms that it was remitted to the Presbytery. In 1726 a committee of Synod, at his request, went to Newark to settle a difficulty which had arisen, and the Synod approved of its action in the premises. In 1732 difficulties in his congregation led the Church missionaries to commence their services in the town. Dickinson preached on "the vanity of human institutions in matters of religion." Colonel Josiah Ogden had been suspended from Church privileges because, for fear of losing his hay, he had gathered it in on the Lord's day. He wrote to the Synod in 1734, and Cross and: Pemberton replied; but the letter did not satisfy him. Dickinson and Pemberton wrote the next year. The result was that Ogden joined the Episcopalians, and a Church missionary was stationed in Newark. Webb continued his, relation to the Synod till 1740. He and his son, a student of Yale College, were drowned while crossing the ferry at Saybrook, Conn., Oct. 21, 1741. (W.P.S.)