Webb, Nathan, a Congregational minister, was born in Braintree, ]\Iass. He graduated from Harvard College in 1725 ; was ordained pastor of the Church in Uxbridge, Feb. 3, 1731 ; and died March 14, 1772, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. See Sprague, Annals of the A iner. Pulpit, ii, 85.
"Webb, Samuel, an English Wesleyan minister, was born at Hanham, near Bristol, in 1783. He feared the Lord from his youth, and joined the Methodist Church at the age of twenty-two. He was called into the ministry in 1808, in which he continued with an un- sullied reputation until his death, June 25, 1847. Meek, humble, and modest, he was firm in principle and tal- ented in preaching. See Minutes of Wesleyan Confer- ences, 1847.
Webb, Thomas, prominent in the early history of Methodism, was an English soldier — for several years lieutenant of the Forty-eighth Regiment of Foot — and a man of wealth and education. He lost an eye and was nearly killed in the storming and capture of the French fort of Loiusburg, Acadia (Nova Scotia), in 1758 ; and was, with Washington, one of the few officers who survived the terrible slaughter at the battle known as "Braddock's Defeat" — the unsuccessful attack in 1755 on the French fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh, Pa., now stands. Four years afterwards he scaled the Heights of Abraham with Gen. Wolf, and saw Canada pass for- ever from the hands of France. He was converted un- der a sermon preached bj^ Wesley, in Bristol, in 1765; united with the Methodist society, and commenced preaching. We next hear of him as barrack-master at Albany, N. Y. The report that the Methodists had commenced meetings in New York reached the ears of the zealous captain, and he at once repaired thither (spring of 1767). Webb was the providential man. " The little society needed a leader — Webb was born to command. They needed another preacher of more ex- perience, learning, and power — Webb was one of the best preachers then on the continent of America. They
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needed money wliorewith to house their young society —Webb was rich and generous. ... It would have been a hard matter tor them to have suited themselves by a choice, out of all the Methodist preachers, better than God had suited them" (Daniels, Hist, of Methodism, p. 388). The congregations became too large, and in 17G8 John Street Church was dedicated, Webb being one of the principal contributors in meeting the expenses of the new building. The military autiiorities now placed tlie captain on the retired list, but with full pay. He at ouce commenced itinerating. He introduced jNIeth- odism into Long Island at Jamaica; founded societies at Pemberton, Burlington, and Trenton, N. J. ; traversed Delaware and Maryland ; became the pioneer of Jleth- odism in Philadelphia, where he preached in a sail-loft and formed a class in 17(18, and two years after gave liberally for the purchase of St. (Jeorge's Church. The work >vas now spreading rapidly. Help was needed. Webb sailed for England in 1772; preached in Dublin, London, etc.; made a stirring appeal before the Leeds Conference; and in 177;> returned with Shadford, Kan- kin, and Yearbry. He continued his evangelistic la- bors till after the breaking -out of the Revolutionarj' War, being one of the last of the English preachers to leave; but finally the country became too hot for him, and he bade a reluctant good-bye to America, the scene of so many struggles and victories in his eventful and varied life. On his return to England, he secured a home for his family in Portland, on the heights of Bris- tol ; but still travelled and preached extensively in chap- els, in market-places, and in the open air, listened to by immense congregations. The French prisoners at Win- chester (1776-82) and the soldiers and sailors at Ports- mouth were benefited by his labors. In 1792 he was liberal and active in the erection of Portland Chapel, at that time one of the most elegant meeting-houses in the Jlethodist connection. The old soldier and evangelist died Dec. 20, 1790, aged seventy-two years, and was laid to rest under the chancel of Portland Chapel,
Wesley writing to a friend in Limerick, said, " Captain Web'o is a man of fire, and the power of God constantly attends his word" {Join: Feb. 2, 1773; Works [3d. ed. Lond.], xii, 378). Charles Wesley speaks of him as an " inexperienced, honest, zealous, loving enthusiast." In 177-1 John Adams says, "]Mr. Webb is one of the most fluent, eloquent men I ever heard. He reaches the im- agination, and touches the passions very well, and ex- presses himself with great proprietj'." See Atmore, Meth. Mem. s. V. ; Stevens, Hist, of Meth. i, 427 ; iii, 99 ; id. Hist, of M. E. Ch. (Index), vol. iv; Porter, Hist, of Meth. p. 247-50, 2G1 ; Simpson, Cyclop, of Meth. s. v.
"Wegscheider, Juuus August Ludwig, the fore- most systematic theologian of rationalism, was born in 1771 at KUbbclingen, in Brunswick. In 1791 he was in the University of Helmstiidt, where Ilenke then oc- cupied the theological chair, and in 1795 he became tutor in the family of a prominent merchant of Ham- burg, He gave ten years to this service. His leisure time was devoted to the study of Kant's philosophy, the fruit of which appeared in 1797 in Ethices iStoi- corum . , , cum I'rincipiis Ethicis a Kuntio Propositis Comparata, and in a Versuch d, Hauptsdtze d. philo- soph. Religionslehre in Prediyten darzuslellen. In 1804 he added to these a treatise Ueher die Trennnng der Mond von der Religion. In 1805 he obtained a tutor- ship in the University of Gottingen, and in the follow- ing work came more prominenth' before the public bj' the issue of his Einkitung in das Eaini/elitim Johnnnis. He was thereupon called to a professorship in the Hes- sian University of Hinteln, and afterwards on the ab- sorption of Kinteln was transferred to Halle. Here he became exceedingly popular with students, who throng- ed his lecture-rooms, and he added to his fame by the publication of his Institutiones TheoloijicB Doymaticm. His popularity continued until the I >enirnciation of the Evangelical Kirchenzeitunij, as it was called, in 1830, when he was, together with his colleague Gesenius,