Pressly, Ebenezer Erskine, IU>.. a Presby- terian divine, was born near Cedar Spring, Abbeville District. S. ('.. in 1808. His parents, of the good old Scotch-Irish stock, were remarkable for their piety and intelligence, and early dedicated their only son to the work of the Christian ministry. He pursued his pre-
paratory studies at I'liion Academy, graduated at Mi- ami University, Ohio, in 1826, was received as a student of theology by the Second Associate Reformed Presby- tery, and studied under John T. Pressly, D.D.. who was then professor of theology for the Southern Synod, was licensed al Due Wesl in 1829, and on Aug. 7. 1830,' was
pa-tor ot Due Wesl and Gcnerostee churches. In 1*;;7 he resigned the latter charge, and continued pastor of Due West alone: in l*.">s he was chosen the successor of Dr. John T. Pressly. In 1839 he was elected president of the Clark and Erskine Seminary, which afterwards took the name ol Erskine College, ill which position he remained until the spring of 1848. He died duly 26, I860. Dr. Pressly was a man of more than ordinary talent, and a good general scholar. In the position of president of the college be was greatly he- loved by his pupils. Possessed of excellent executive ability, and of special aptness to teach, much of the success Of the college and seminary, in the early pe- riods of their history, was traceable to his influence. Though an interesting writer, he had a singular aver- sion to appearing before the public as an author, and hence he never published anything except an oi casional sermon. See Wilson. Presb, Hist. Almanac, 1861, p. 226. (J. L. S.)
Pressly, John S., a Presbyterian minister, noted also as a classical teacher, was born in Abbeville Dis- trict, S. ('.. in 1794. His means for acquiring the rudi- ments of a literary education wan very limited. Until the years of manhood he had not enjoyed very fully the advantages of the common school. In 1812, however, he moved to the State of Ohio, and during a stay of three years in the Northwestern States he underwent much privation and hard labor in his endeavors to acquire knowledge. About the close of the year L815 he was prostrated on a bed of suffering with a painful illness; a kind Providence brought him the medical service- of Dr. Joseph Gilbert, who. on his recover}-, suggested to him the desirableness of a classical education, and pro- posed to furnish him with the necessary books. Thus encouraged, and accepting the doctor's kind idler, he entered Church Hill Academy June 19, 181(i; in L819 he entered South Carolina College, and spent two years there. In 1822 his career of classical teacher began, and in this field of usefulness, in which he Labored dur- ing the balance of his life, he .attained an enviable rep- utation. His first charge was Union Academy, in the southern part of Abbeville District, S. C. Among his
pupils here were the late Lev. E. E. l'n s-l\ .D.I >., L'e\ .
J. T. Pressly, I >.D.,Hon. T.C. Perrin, and J*. A. < lalhoun, Esq. In 1824 '27 he taught at Cambridge and Leaver Dam— the latter in Laurens District. In 1828 he took charge of Church Hill Academy, but his labors there
were s i interrupted by his being elected to the State
Legislature of South Carolina by the people ol Abbeville District. In 1K>,">, at the close of his political career. he was invited to take charge of the high school at Due West, s. c.. just founded by the Associate Reformed Synod of the South, where he continued to Labor till L839 with great success. At last released from all en- gagements connected with teaching, he turned his at- tention to the situly of theology : studied one -t ssion in the seminary of the Associate Reformed Church at Ox- ford, Ohio; was licensed in 1840; and after attending during the ensuing session in the Associate Reformed Seminan at Alleghany City, Pa., he was i mployed until L842 as a missionary to destitute churches within the bounds of the synod. Subsequently he was settled lor five years as pa-tor of Bethel and Ebenezer churches,
Ga.; the remainder of hi- life until 1851 was -pent in
teaching and missionary work. He died dune i. 1863. Mr. Pressly a- a man w as social and companionable; as
a teacher he was a strict disciplinarian, and in the capac- ity to imparl classical knowledge had lew superior-.
s ■ Wilson, Presb. /lis/. Mm. (1867), p. 398. (J. L.S.) Pressly, John T., D.D.. a Presbyterian mini-tir.
PRESSY
561
PRESUMPTION
noted as a professor in divinity and an author, was born in Abbeville District, S. C, in 1803. He studied for the ministry at the Theological Seminary in New York under Dr. John Mason. His first pastorate was in his native village, from which he was called to a professorship in the Theological Seminary, and the charge of the First Associate Reformed (now United Presbyterian) Church in Alleghany, Pa., both of which stations he filled with distinguished ability and success for nearly forty years. He died at Alleghany Aug. 13, 1870.— Appletons' An- nual Cyclopaedia, x, 573.
Pressy, Fran^ois-Joseph-Gaston de Partz de, a French prelate, was born in 1712 at the castle of Ecuire (diocese of Boulogne). He was one of the most distinguished pupils of Saint-Sulpice. He was called, Dec. 25, 1742, to the episcopal see of Boulogne. He ad- ministered his diocese during nearly forty-seven years with unremitting zeal, and spent considerable sums for the ransom of the Christians captive among the Mo- hammedans, and for the expansion of the faith by foreign missions. In 1752 he joined a protestation addressed to the king (June 11), by twenty-one bishops, against par- liamentary encroachments on ecclesiastical authority. A mandement which he subsequently published on the subject was suppressed. He died at Boulogne Oct. 8, 1789. His principal writings are, Statute synodaux (174b", 4to) : — a collection of Instructions pastorales and Dissertations theologiques (2 vols. 4to) : — a Rituel du Diocese de Boulogne (Boulogne, 1780, 4to) : — and a pray- er-book in French, under the title oflfeures (Lille, 1820, 8vo). See Gallia Christiana, t. x; Gazette de France, 1742-89 ; Fisquet, France Pontificate (not published). — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.