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Since 1870 he has had charge of the schools of the National academy, of which he was elected an as- sociate in 1871 and an academician in 1873. Among his works, principally genre pictures, are " Captain Nathan Hale " (1866) ; " Playing two Games at the same Time" (1867): "The Home Missionary" (1869); "Another Candidate for Adoption" (1871); "Guess what I have brought You " (1873) ; " Left in Charge " (1874) ; " Ingrati- tude " (1875) ; " Feat of Courage " (1876) ; " A Plea for the Homeless " (1877) ; " Pick of the Orchard " (1878): and "Jack's Return" (1879).

WILMARTH, Seth, inventor, b. in Brattle- boro', Vt., 8 Sept., 1810; d. in Maiden, Mass., 5 Nov., 1886. He became a machinist in Pawtucket, R. I., and in 1855 was appointed superintendent and master-mechanic of the Charlestown navy- yard. During the twenty years of his service there he made many valuable improvements in various departments, the most important being the large planer and the great lathe in the machine-shop, which were then the largest of their kind in the world, both bearing his name as inventor. Among his patents, numbering about twenty, were those for his revolving turrets, and for the hydraulic lift for raising the turret shafts on monitor vessels. Soon after the war the latter was submitted to the navy department, and was rejected as being of questionable utility, if not dangerous, its purpose having been efficiently accomplished by the means of a sledge-hammer and screw-wedge on many ex- isting vessels. About 1873 the same plan was pur- chased bv the U. S. government for $50,000.

WILMER, Lambert A., author, b. about 1805 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 21 Dec, 1863. In early life he edited the Baltimore " Saturday Visitor," and for many years afterward he was connected with " The Pennsylvanian," in Philadelphia. He was the author of a " New System of Grammar " ; " The Quacks of Helicon " (1851) ; " Life, Travels, and Adventures of Ferdinand de Soto " (Philadelphia, 1858); and "Our Press-Gang, or a Complete Ex- position of the Corruptions and Crimes of the American Newspapers (1859).

WILMER, William Holland, clergyman, b. in Kent county, Md., 29 Oct., 1782 ; d. in Williams- burg, Va., 24 July, 1827. His ancestors were early settlers of Maryland, and his uncle, James J. Wil- mer, a clergyman of the Episcopal church, was secretary of the first meeting of the clergy of the United States in 1783. . On his motion the " Church of England in the colonies " adopted the name of the Protestant Episcopal church. Will- iam was educated at Washington college in Kent county, and was for some time occupied in mer- cantile pursuits. He was admitted to orders in 1808 by Bishop Claggett, and was rector of Chester parish, Md., in 1808-'12, and of St. Paul's, Alexan- dria, Va., in 1812-'22. He was elected rector of St. John's, Washington city, in 1816, but declined. In 1819 he began the publication of the " Washington Theological Repertory," and he continued in con- nection with it until 1826. During his pastorate in Alexandria he built the present St. Paul's church, was an originator of the Education society of the District of Columbia, and its president for several years, aiding in preparing for orders the first graduates of the Virginia Protestant Episco- pal seminary, of which he was a founder. When it was removed from Fairfax Court-House to Alex- andria in 1823, he was appointed professor of sys- tematic theology, ecclesiastical history, and church polity, and he was chosen assistant rector of the Monumental church, Richmond, Va., in 1826, but declined. The same year he became president of William and Mary college, and rector of the church in Williamsburg, which posts he held till his death. Dr. Wilmer was very active and efficient in trying to resuscitate the Episcopal church in Virginia, and used his pen freely and effectually. He was a delegate to general conventions in 1821-6, and president of the house of clerical and lay deputies. He received the degree of D. D. from Brown in 1820. He published numerous sermons on special occasions (1813-20); many able articles in the "Theological Repertory" (1819-26); "Episcopal Manual " (1815) ; and " Controversy with Baxter, a Jesuit Priest " (1818). — His son, Richard Hooker, P. E. bishop, b. in Alexandria, Va., 15 March, 1816, was graduated at Yale in 1836, and at the Theologi- cal seminary of Virginia in 1839, was ordained in the Monument- al church, Rich- mond, Va., on Easter-day, 1840, and was rector of numerous church- es, chiefly in Vir- ginia, till 1864, when he was con- secrated bishop of Alabama in St. Paul's church, Richmond, 6 March, 1862

He received the

degree of D. D. from William and Mary college, Va., in 1850, and that of LL. D. from the University of Oxford, England, in 1867, and from the University of Alabama in 1880. At the close of the civil war Bishop Wilmer recommended to the clergy of his diocese the omission of the prayer "for the president and all in civil authority," on the ground that only military government existed in Alabama, whereupon Gen. George II. Thomas suspended him and his clergy from their functions; but the order was afterward set aside by President Johnson. He is the author of " The Recent Past, from a Southern Standpoint : Reminiscences of a Grandfather" (New York, 1887). — William Holland's nephew, Joseph Pere Bell, P. E. bishop, b. in Kent county, Md., 11 Feb., 1812; d. in New Orleans, La., 2 Dec, 1878, was educated at. Kenyon college, and the Protestant Episcopal theological seminary, Alexandria, Va. He was ordered deacon in July, 1834, and ordained priest in May, 1838, and, after serving for a few months as chaplain at the University of Virginia, was appointed in 1839 a chaplain in the U. S. army. He resigned his commission in 1843, was in charge successively of Hungar's parish, Northampton co., and St. Paul's parish, Goochland co., Va., became rector of St. Mark's church, Philadelphia, in 1848, continuing there till the beginning of the civil war, when he resigned, and settled on his plantation in Albemarle county, Va. He went to England in 1863 to purchase Bibles for the Confederate army, was captured on his return voyage, and for a short time confined in the old Capitol prison, Washington, D. C. He became bishop of Louisiana in 1866. The diocese at that time was in a disorganized condition, but he devoted himself with great energy to reconstructing churches that had been burned, and supplying vacant pulpits, and was successful in restoring the affairs of the diocese to a prosperous condition.