BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF THE REV. DAVID GOODWILLIE.

THE REV. DAVID GOODWILLIE was born near Fife-shire, Scotland, in the beginning of the year 1749. He received his academical education in Edinburgh, where he also studied Theology. He was licensed to preach the gospel in the fall of 1778. He was employed, preaching as a probationer, in Scotland, England and Ireland, during a period of ten years. In the spring of 1788, he emigrated to the United States of America, and formed an important and seasonable acquisition to the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania, then much in need of help. For although the members of the Presbytery had then increased to six, yet the congregations and applications to the Presbytery had been increasing in a still greater ratio. Many of those, who had been carried away by the fair promises of those who formed that union, which gave rise to the Associate Reformed body in 1782, not finding their expectations realized, were now returning to their former profession; and many from Europe, who had been acquainted with the principles professed by the Associate Church in Great Britain, were also making application to the Presbytery, from different and far distant sections of this widely extended country. In order that Mr. Goodwillie might be qualified to discharge all the parts of the office of a gospel minister, in the newly organized congregations among which he was now called to labor, the Presbytery judged it expedient to take him on trial for ordination, as early as convenient, after his arrival. Accordingly, we find he was ordained in the city of Philadelphia to the office of the holy ministry, on the 31st day of October, in the same year he arrived. Mr. Beveridge preached on the occasion. The discourse is inserted in this collection.

For about one year after his ordination, he was employed in preaching in various places in the States of Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York. But it was not long until a door, in divine providence, was opened for the stated exercise of Mr. Goodwillie's labors, as far as the general interests of the church would permit. In the latter part of the year 1789, he visited Caledonia County, Vermont, where a promising society was collecting, chiefly of emigrants from Scotland. On the 5th of July, 1790, he was regularly and unanimously called to become the stated pastor of the Associate congregation of Barnet, Caledonia County, Vermont, in which call, a few families from the adjoining town, Ryegate, also united and received a portion of Mr. Goodwillie's pastoral labors. Which call being regularly presented and accepted, he was admitted to the pastoral charge of the congregation of Barnet on the 8th of February, 1791, according to the rules and usages of the Presbytery, but he continued to devote a portion of his labors to Ryegate, until that congregation obtained a pastor to themselves in 1822. Among these people he labored nearly forty years. He died August the 2d, 1830, in the 81st year of his age, having preached the everlasting gospel nearly fifty-two years. His remains lie in the church-yard of the Associate congregation of Barnet, according to his own request, beside those of his highly esteemed friend and brother in Christ, the Rev. Thomas Beveridge. When Mr. Goodwillie settled in Barnet, the country was new; with a single exception, it is believed that there was not a settled minister of any denomination within sixty miles of him.

While this circumstance greatly increased the labors of his charge, it also gave him an opportunity of an extensive field in which to sow the good seed of the word of life. And Mr. Goodwillie seemed in every respect well qualified for that station in the church, in which an all-wise Providence placed him; blessed with a good physical constitution, he endured the toils and fatigues to which his situation exposed him, without inconvenience: and was enabled to continue his labors almost without interruption, to the close of his long life. His mental endowments were not less suitable to the station which he occupied, than those of his body. Though not distinguished by that brilliancy of mind, which many call genius, he was endowed with a clear and sound judgment, an accurate discernment, with much prudence and a large portion of that useful and happy talent of discerning and conducting himself according to the laws of propriety, which is usually called common sense. Hence he was often consulted by all

classes, in any emergencies or difficulties in which they might be involved. As an evidence of the confidence which his townsmen and neighbors reposed in his judgment, he was often called to the discharge of such civil offices as least interfered with his duties to the congregation. He was chosen to represent the town of Barnet in the Legislature of the State, while that body held its session in Danville, distant but a short distance from his residence. He possessed a peculiarly cheerful disposition, and was enabled to preserve great equanimity under circumstances either of prosperity or adversity. And it was remarked by the most intelligent and religious of his people, that he uniformly appeared most cheerful in preaching, when under trouble, whether of a domestic or public nature. Although as a preacher or public speaker, his talents were not of the most popular kind they were certainly of a kind well suited to render him very useful and highly acceptable to the people among whom he labored so long. He urged the plain truths of the gospel, in a plain but an affectionate manner. His aim, in his public ministrations, was evidently to commend Christ and the way of salvation to perishing sinners, not to set forth himself as an aspirant after the praises of men.

Mr. Goodwillie was married in Philadelphia, shortly after his arrival in this country, to a native of Kircaldy, Scotland, whose name was Beatrice Henderson, a woman well qualified to be a help-mate to him, in things both temporal and spiritual. She took a deep interest in the concerns of the church; and if any trouble arose in the congregation, it was their usual practice to set apart a day for fasting, humiliation and prayer in private, a practice highly worthy of imitation. Those of her friends who had the best opportunity of knowing her habits, represent her as a woman conscientiously careful in the discharge of all known duties, much devoted to prayer, and greatly enriched in christian experience. She died Feb. 4th, 1827, three years and a half before her husband. Their family consisted of four sons and as many daughters. A son and a daughter died in early youth, on the same day and of the same epidemic with each other, and only a few days before the death of Mr. Beveridge, as noticed in the sketch of his life. Two of his daughters were married, the one to the Rev. A. Bullions, D. D., and the other to the Rev. John Donaldson, at that time ministers of the Associate Church, but both these women are now deceased. Two of his sons entered the ministry, and were both licensed to preach the gospel, by the Presbytery of Cambridge, their father presi

ding as Moderator, Sept. 29, 1823. One of whom was called, as assistant pastor and successor to his father, Sept. 27, 1826, nearly four years before his father's decease. The other is settled near the line between Pennsylvania and Ohio. A single daughter, and a son besides the two in the ministry mentioned above, survive their father.

From a diary, kept by his son Thomas, who was his colleague during his last illness, now before the writer of this notice, Mr. Goodwillie appears to have closed his labors, as might have been expected from his life. He had lived the life of the righteous, and his "latter end was like his."

[The facts respecting Mr. Goodwillie, stated in the above sketch, were furnished by his son and successor, the Rev. Thomas Goodwillie.]