Black, "William, a Methodist missionary, was born in Huddersfield, Eng., in 17G0, and removed with his parents to Nova Scotia 1775. In 1786 he entered the ministry. He made up by industry for the lack of early education, and acquired the Hebrew and Greek languages after commencing his ministry. After sev- eral years' faithful and successful ministry, he was ap- pointed general superintendent of the "Wesleyan Mis- sions in British America. He continued in this service through life, and is justly regarded as the father of Methodism in that region. He died in peace, Sept. 8, 1834. — Wesleyan Minutes (Lond. 1835); Lives of Early Methodist Minister/, iii, 115.
Blackall, Offspring, D.D., bishop of Exeter, was born in London 1654, and educated at Cambridge. After successive pastorates at Okenderi, Essex, and St. Mary's, London, he was made bishop of Exeter 1707, and died 1716. He had the reputation of being one of the best preachers of his age. His sermons on the Sufficiency <f 11< relation and on the Sermon an the Mount are collected in his Works, with Life of the Au- thor, by Archbishop Uawcs (Lond. 1723, 2 vols. fob). There is also an edition of the Practical Discourses (8 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1717). — Darling, Cyclop. Bible, s. v.
Blackburn, Andrew, a minister of the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, was born in Jefferson County, Tenn., Sept. 28, 1827, studied at Maryville College and the South-western Seminary, and was licensed by Union Presbytery, Tennessee, 1850. In the same year he was also or-
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daiiied as a ruling elder of Westminster church, and was a lay commissioner to the I ieneral Assembly. On his return he took charge of the church at Chattanoo- ga, Teim. He had been for some time editing, with others, the Calvinistic Magazine, when the Synod of Tennessee, Oct., 1850, resolved to establish the Pres- bylei-Um Witness, and made him one of the editors. For several years he sustained the latter paper, not only by his talents, bat with his money, and, when the paper went down in 1858, he revived it; but, his health fail- ing, he had soon to dispose of it. From 1856 to 1859 lie was Btated supply for Bristol, Tenn., and during a portion of 1855 he acted as agent for the Home Mis- sionary Society. He died Aug. 22, 1859, of consump- tion, at Maryville. — Wilson, Preshyt. Histor. Almanac for 1861.
Blackburn, Francis, an English divine, was horn in 1705, at Richmond, Yorkshire, educated at Cambridge, and ordained 1739, when he became rec- tor of Richmond. In 1750 he was made archdeacon of Cleveland, and it was after that period that he be- gan to be known as the advocate of what is called " re- ligious liberty." In 17G6 he wrote his Confessional against subscriptions to articles and creeds, a work which elicited a hot controversy, and called forth more than seventy pamphlets. Blackburn was a bit- ter opponent of the Romanists, and wrote against them. He died in 1787. He was for some time en- gaged in the controversy concerning the intermediate state. His writings are collected under the title Works, Tli-oloffiral and Miscellaneous (Camb. 1804, 7 vols. 8vo), with a life of the author by his son in vol. i.
Blackburn, Gideon, D.D., a Presbyterian min- ister, born in Augusta Co., Va., in 1772, and instruct- ed in theology by the Rev. Robert Henderson, was li- censed to preach in 1792, and labored actively in va- rious parts of the West until 1827, when he became president of Centre College, Ky. He left this post in 1830, however, and employed himself in collecting funds, with which, after his death, the Blackburn The- ological Seminary at Carlinville, 111., was established. In the division of the Presbyterian Church Dr. Black- burn went with the New School. He died in 1838, at Carlinville. As an educator and disciplinarian he stood in the first rank, and few excelled him in power of extemporaneous preaching. — Sprague, Annals, iv, 43.
Blackfriars, a name given to the Dominicans in England from the color of their garments. A paro- chial district in London in which they established their second English house still bears the name. See Do- minicans.
Blacklock, Thomas, D.D., a divine and poet, was horn at Annan, Scotland, in 1721, and lost his sight by the small-pox when he was about six months old. To amuse and instruct him, his father and friends used to read to him, and by this means he acquired a fund of information, and even some knowledge of Latin. Through the kindness of Dr. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, he studied several years at Edinburgh, and became well acquainted with Creek, Latin, French, and Italian. In 176§ he was ordained minister of Kircud- bright, but, being opposed by the parishioners, ho re- tire.! alt: r two years on an annuity, and received stu- dents at Edinburgh as boarders, and assisted them in their studies, lie died July 7, 1791. His poems will or referred to on account of the peculiar cir- cumstances under which they were written; but, al- tliou li marked by a vein of placid elegance, they are wanting alike in rigor of thought and force of imagi- nation. Dr. Blacklock published An Essay toward Universal Etymology (8vo, 1756):- Paraclesis, «r Con- BolatfotlS (hihicid from Natural it,„l Hn-tnled Relifum (1767):— .1 Panegyric on Great Britain, a poem (8vo, 1773): — The Graham, a heroic poem, in four cantos (4to. 1771 1. In 1793 a posthumous edition of his poems