Nelson, Joseph, LL.D., an American educator, was born about 1794, and was educated at Rutgers Col- lege, New Brunswick, N. J., class of 1815. He was made professor of languages in 1826, but resigned this position in 1829. He was a distinguished classical scholar and teacher. During his professorship in Rutgers College he was blind, yet so thoroughly versed in his authors and so capable as an instructor that he was enabled to perform the duties of his chair with great acceptance. His other senses were remarkably acute. It is said that he could accurately tell the size of a room by tlie sound of the stamp of his foot upon the floor. He retired from active duty at the close of his professorship, and died in the city of New York in 1830, (W. J. R. T.)
Nelson, Matthew, a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, was born in Prince Edward County, Va., April 7, 1781. In 1795 his father, colonel Ambrose Nelson, a descendant of the "old Scotch Tom," removed to Danville, K}\ Together with his brother Thomas, who was born in 1779, Matthew was converted in 1801-1802, and together these brothers were baptized while upon their knees in the Kentucky River. They exhibited such interest in the promotion of holy living that they were shortly after licensed to exhort by the Methodist Episcopal Church which they had joined, and in a very brief period were made preachers and ad- mitted into the Kentucky Conference by bishop McKen- dree. Thomas preached for several years in Ohio, INIis- sissippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, when his health failed, and he was placed on the superannuated list. He then went South, and the time and place of his death are not known. Matthew preached until 1815, when he located. When the question of lay-represen- tation first agitated the Methodist Episcopal Church, he took sides for the reform, and was elected delegate for Kentucky to the Baltimore Convention. He was a member of that body when it formed the constitution of the Methodist Protestant Church, and thereafter his membership was in that branch of Methodism. He made, however, no distinction in his treatment of Meth- odists, and his house was the home of Methodist preach- ers generally. In 1837 he removed to Rutherford Co., Tenn., and there continued to be the same zealous pro- moter of Methodism. He died in 1856. His children joined the Methodist Episcopal Church without any opposition on his part. See McFerrin, Methodism in Tennessee, ii, 134-137. (J H.W.)
Nelson, Robert, a pious and learned English divine, noted as the author of various works in practi- cal divinity which have long been held in very high estimation, was born at London June 22, 1656. He studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was whik a young man elect- ed a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was intimate with Halley, with whom he travelled in France and Ital}'. While at Rome he met with and married in 1682 Lady Theophila Lucy, widow of a baronet, and daughter of the earl of Berkeley. This lady, under the
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influence of the celebrated French Romanist, Bossuet— an intimate friend of Nelson — some time after their marriage became a Homan Catholic, to his great grief. Nelson's mind had been much occupied with the con- sideration of both the practical and controversial points ill divinity, and his chief friends were eminent divines ill tlie Knglish Church, particularly Bull, Hickes, Lloyd, and TiUotsoii— the last was one of his most valued as- soi iatcs. Nelson not only employed his own jiowers of jicrsu.ishin, both verbal and literary, but called in the aid cf his friend, archbishop Tillotsfjn ; both were, how- ever, unsiieeessful, the lady continuing in the Koniish coinniimion till her death. His first work, Transiib- sliintiiitiiin contninj to Scripture, or the I 'rot est a ill's A iisirer to the Seeker's Request (1688), appears to be the substance of his considerations on this subject. He was strongly attached to king James H. He was the zealous promoter of all works of charity, having the ability as well as the disposition to give what true be- nevolence prompted. In helping to build churche.*, found schools, disseminate useful books, and enforce tiie laws against crime, he worked most effectually. At the Hevolutiou he scrui)led to take the oaths to king William, and remained a nonjuror till the year 1709, when on the death of Dr. Lloyd, the last survivor of tlic deprived nonjiiring bishops, except Dr. Keen, he by Dr. Keen's advice returned to the Church of Eng- land as then established. He died Jan. 1(3, 1715, at Kensington, and was buried in the cemetery of St. <;eorge the Martyr by the Foundling Hospital. Itobert Nelson wrote A Companion for the Feslirals and Fasts of the Church of EnfjlamJ, etc. (IGth ed. Lond. 173G, 8vo). It is still one of the best works of the kind; several abridgments of it have appeared. Bickersteth jjraises it, but deplores tlie "great want of evangelical jiriiu-iples and unction"' (Chris/iiiii S/itih-i/t, p. 429), l)rul)ably because Nelson esjxiuses {'.iiU's views on justi- liralioii:— 7'/ie J'rartire of trm /hn.ilni, i„ delation to thr Knd as veil as the jjeans of l;,llf<uK etc. (7th ed. Lond. 172G, 12mo) -.—The great Duty of frequenting the Christian Sacrifice, and the Nature of the I'repai-ation required (5th ed. Lond. 1714, 12mo): — An Address to J'ersons of Quaiitg and Estate (Lond. 1715, 8vo):— 7'Ae u-h(de Duty of a Christian, by icay of Question and An- swer (9th ed. Lond. 1727, rimo) : — Instritctionsfor them that come to he Coi firmed (Lond. 1823, 12mo). He pub- lished also a Life of Bishop Bull, together with the latter's works (Lond. 1714, 3 vols. 8vo; see Debary, Jli^tory of the Ch. of England, 1G85-1717, p. 346 sij.), anil the works o( Kettlewell (Lond. 1719, 2 vols. foL). See Secretan, Life of Nekon; Perry, Hist, of the Church of Scotland, iii, 69; Palin, Hist, of the Church of England, 1688-1717, p. 37 s(i. ; Engl. Cyclop, s. v. ; Darling, Cyclojh Bihliog. ii, 21Gfi.