[There is a large section devoted to Rev. Blackwell in this book. Formatted for clarity, this is the text for a suggested tablet in his honor found on page 550 ]
Sacred to the Memory of THE REVEREND ROBERT BLACKWELL, D.D.
Ordained to the Ministry in England June 11th 1772, by the Bishop of London.
Missionary A.D. 1773, in Gloucester County, NJ.
During the War for Independence, Chaplain to the First Pennsylvania Brigade and in the Winter of 1777-1778, Surgeon to one of the regiments at Valley Forge.
From 1781 till 1811 Senior Assistant Minister of the United Churches of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia
And during the closing years of the War, one of the only two clergymen of the Church of England whom the desolation of those times left in the extensive State of Pennsylvania, his friend and ministerial associate of 30 years, THE REVEREND WILLIAM WHITE, afterwards Bishop of this Diocese, being the other.
THE PASTOR OF WASHINGTON
Born May 6th, 1748-Died February 12th, 1831
In the councils of the church, which he assisted to, perpetuated in these United States, and in the earliest and most important of those conventions, both General and Diocesan, he was a constant participator. He acquired general respect by his adherence to principle, his temperateness of conduct, and the practical wisdom of all his suggestions.
In the sphere of parochial charge, he was distinguished by propriety of life and by the sincerity of feeling, the clearness of argument, and the soundness of scholarship, with which, in the spirit of charity, he inculcated the duties and doctrines declared by religion and the church.
Blessed, in his private station With fortune above what is common to his profession, he gave a convincing proof of the effect on his own heart of those precepts which he urged upon others in an unostentatious, but constant and liberal charity towards the poor, from whom his face was never turned away, nor any petition for relief addressed in vain.
He was not more respectable in his public and sacred office, than engaging and amiable in social and domestic life. A true person and benignant countenance with natural sweetness of temper and delicacy of feeling, united to manners, refined by early associations and made liberal by foreign travel, and intercourse with military life and character, rendered him eminently agreeable to all.
Having for thirty years, without intermission, discharged with fidelity the duties of his official station in the two extensive parishes, he yielded, in his sixty-second year, on their union with a third, to the necessities of health, now no longer constant, and resigned his ancient, formal connection with the pastorate of these congregations, but attending devoutly on the service of this temple, and aiding frequently in its holy ministrations, he received and dispensed the comforts they impart until he had entered his 83d year, when, in possession of all his faculties, and in resignation to the author and giver of them, he was called from the duties of a long and well-spent life, to the expectation of their reward in the felicities of an eternal world.
He was the son of Jacob and Frances Blackwell, of Long Island, New York, and descended of an ancient family, originally of England, but afterwards settled in this country, one member of which, his great grandfather, Robert Blackwell, became, in 1878, an extensive proprietor of land in the East River and on Long Island, New York, including possessions, which still bear his name.
He married, January 17th, 1780, Rebecca, daughter of Joseph and Ann Harrison, of New Jersey.
In remembrance of his virtues and in grateful record of kindness in her youth, one of his descendants hath caused this monument to be established to his memory.
