Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/219

This page needs to be proofread.
HEWETT
HEWIT
191

instances in which these rights are violated and in- fringed, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining their restoration." Although a mer- chant, he insisted on the plan of importation, and served with distinction on this and many of the most important com- mittees during 1775- '6. In the beginning of 1775 the Society of Friends, to which he and his family be- longed, held a gen- eral convention de- nouncing the pro- ceedings of congress, and such was Hewes's patriotism that he at once severed his con- nection with the So- ciety and became not only a promoter of war but of gay and

worldly habits. In

1776 he was a member of the secret committee, of the committee on claims, and was virtually first secretary of the navy. With Gen. Washington, he conceived the plan of operations for the ensuing campaign, and voted in favor of the immediate adoption of the declaration of 4 July in accordance with the resolutions passed by the North Carolina convention of the preceding April, that state being the first of the colonies to declare in favor of throwing off all connec- tion with Great Britain. He was again chosen a delegate to congress in 1776, but was prevented by illness from serving, and was again returned in 1779. but died in the second month of his term. His funeral was conducted with public ceremonies, and attended by Gen. Washington and a distin- guished civil and military escort. He left no children to inherit his large estates. His miniature shows him to have possessed great personal beauty.


HEWETT, Edward Osborne, Canadian en- gineer, b. in Glamorgan, England. 25 Sept., 1835. He was educated at Cheltenham college and the Royal military academy at Woolwich, commis- sioned lieutenant in the Royal engineers in 1854, captain in 1860, major in 1872, lieutenant-colonel in 1879, colonel in 1881, and was created a com- panion of the order of St. Michael and St. George in 1883. In 1861, in anticipation of a war with the United States, he took command of the field com- pany of royal engineers for active service in Canada. He subsequently commanded the Royal engineers of Ontario, west of Toronto, was engaged in report- ing on the defences and resources of Canada, and was afterward in charge of the designing and con- struction of the military and naval fortifications in Halifax, N. S. He visited both National and Confederate camps during the civil war. In 1875 he was appointed commandant of the proposed military college of Canada, and he has had the sole organization and working of this institution from its conception till the present date (1887).


HEWETT, Waterman Thomas, educator, b. in Miami, Saline co., Mo., 10 Jan., 1846. He removed in early youth to South Paris, Me., and was gradu- ated at Amherst in 1869. He then went abroad, Was a student at the University of Athens and in the school of modern languages at Heidelberg in 1870. on his return to the United States became assistant professor of German at Cornell, and since 1883 has been professor there of the German lan- guage and literature. Prof. Hewett is a constant contributor to the magazines on scientific and liter- ary subjects, especially on the life, character, and literature of Goethe, and has published " The Fris- ian Language and Literature" (Ithaca, N. Y., 1879) ; " Monograph on the Aims and Efforts of Collegiate Study of the Modern Languages " (Balti- more, 1886) ; and the " Mutual Relations of High Schools and Colleges " (Syracuse, 1887).


HEWIT, Nathaniel, clergyman, b. in New London, Conn., 28 Aug., 1788 : d. in Bridgeport, Conn., 3 Feb., 1867. He was graduated at Yale in 1808, and studied law, but afterward entered the divinity-school at Andover, and in 1815 was licensed to preach. He officiated successfully in the Presbyterian churches in Plattsburg, N. Y., and Fairfield, Conn., until 1828, when he resigned to become the agent of the American temperance society. He was signally successful in this work, and earned the title of the " Luther of the early temperance reform." He became pastor of the 2d Congregational church in Bridgeport, Conn., in 1830, made a visit, in aid of the temperance reform, to England in 1831. and, returning in 1834, continued pastor of the 2d church of Bridgeport, and then of a Presbyterian church that was formed of members of his old parish, until increasing age and infirmities compelled him to withdraw from active labors in 1862. He was a founder and liberal benefactor of the Hartford theological seminary. His wife was a daughter of Senator James Hillhouse of Connecticut. — His son, Nathaniel Augustus, clergyman, b. in Fairfield, Conn., 27 Nov., 1820, was graduated at Amherst in 1839. He studied law, but at the end of a year abandoned it, and entered the Theological institute of Connecticut, which was then at Windsor. In 1842 he was licensed to preach as a Congregationalist, but in the following year he was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church. He was selected to accompany Bishop Southgate as a missionary to Constantinople, but the missionary committee refused to ratify the appointment on the ground that Mr. Hewit held beliefs that were distinctively Roman Catholic. He was received into the Roman Catholic church in 1846, and was ordained in 1847 by Bishop Reynolds. He was then appointed vice-principal of the Charleston collegiate institute. He joined the Redemptorist order in 1850, and in 1858, on the foundation of the congregation of St. Paul by Father Hecker, became one of its chief members, taking the religious name of Augustine Francis. Since 1865 he has been employed in literary work, and as professor of philosophy, theology, and Holy Scripture in the Paulist seminarv, New York city. From 1869 till 1874 he edited the "Catholic World." Amherst gave him the degree of D. D. in 1877. Father Hewit's works are " Reasons for submitting to the Catholic Church" (Charleston, 1846) ; " Life of Princess Borghese " (New York, 1856) ; " Life of Dumoulin-Borie," an Annamite missionary (1857) ; "The Little Angel of the Copts"; "Life of Rev. Francis A. Baker" (1865); "Problems of the Age. with Studies in St. Augustine on Kindred Subjects " (1868) ; " Light in Darkness, a Treatise on the Obscure Night of the Soul " (1870); " The King's Highway, or the Catholic Church the Way of Salvation, as revealed in Holy Scriptures " (1874). Father Hewit has been a frequent contributor to religious periodicals, and has edited the " Complete Works of Bishop England " (Baltimore, 1850).— Another son, Henry Stewart, surgeon, b. in Fairfield, Conn., 26 Dec, 1825 ; d. in New York city, 19 Aug., 1873, was educated at Yale, and graduated in medicine from the University of New York in 1848, entering the array as acting