LENGTHY FOOTNOTE (continued...)
"Richard Hill was born in Maryland, brought up to the sea, and afterwards settled in Philadelphia, having there married the widow of John Delaval, Hannah, the eldest daughter of the late Governor Lloyd, a woman of an excellent character, and very much esteemed and beloved. He was twenty-five years a member of the Governor's Council, divers times Speaker of the Assembly, held several offices of trust; was, for several years, first commissioner of property; and, during the last ten years of his life, he was one of the provincial judges.
"His services in the religious society of his friends, the Quakers, of which he was, for many years, an active member, are said likewise to have been very considerable. He had by nature and acquisition such a constant firmness, as furnished him with undaunted resolution to execute whatever he undertook. His sound judgment, his great esteem for the English constitution and laws, his tenderness for the liberty of the subject, and his zeal for preserving the reputable order established in his own religious community, with his great generosity to proper objects, qualified him for the greatest services in every station in which he was engaged, and rendered him of very great and uncommon value in the place where he lived. He died in Philadelphia, on the 9th of September, 1729.
"Isaac Norris, of Philadelphia, held many public offices, with great reputation and honour; and his services, in the affairs of his own religious community, entitled him to very high and uncommon esteem among his friends, the Quakers, in which he was a principal person in good offices. He is said to have been endowed with good natural abilities, which he improved and applied to the benefit of mankind, as a man truly sensible that one of the chief ends of man' existence is to be useful and beneficent to the human race; which he showed by his uniform conduct; and that, to answer this end, men are to be taken as they are, and their lesser failings to be endured where they cannot be amended; the utility of his great talents was manifested by a prudent and consistent conduct, in which he so much the more effectually succeeded and excelled, and that agreeable to duty and a good conscience, by constantly cherishing a temper and disposition of mind which overlooks or passes by the many dislikes, deficiencies, and ungrateful things, in others, which are so commonly incident to mankind; so that, by preserving through life a Christian moderation, and an even hand, he was on all occasions qualified to use and exert his abilities to more advantage. His example in this was noble and conspicuous, and his character, in most respects, so honourable among men in general, and his conduct so universally beneficial, especially to those of his own religious community, that he was an ornament to his country and profession, and his death a great loss to both, which was in the year 1735, when he was Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.
"Samuel Preston, likewise of Philadelphia, was for a long time one of the Governor's Council, and Treasurer of the Province of Pennsylvania, which offices he discharged with much honour and fidelity. He was a man of great integrity to what he believed was his duty; his conduct in life very instructive, and his practice a continual series of good offices. He was a person of such remarkable benevolence and open disposition of mind, as rendered advice and reproof from him the more acceptable and servicable; and being of a fair and clean character, good judgement, and suitable presence of mind, his usefulness in that capacity was the more extensive and successful. He was a very valuable member of society among his friends, the Quakers, undertaking and performing many difficult offices and social duties therein with great cheerfulness, alacrity, and utility; and was highly esteemed by them as an elder, who ruled well in his social capacity, and was worthy of double honour. He died in September, 1743, aged about eighty years." (Continuation...)Go to: Doctor Richard Hill
