Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Devany, Rev. Benjamin, 1876 

************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm
************************************************

Rev. Benjamin DEVANY 


Death of an Aged Minister. 
[Special telegram to the Dispatch.] 

  Suffolk, Va., May 16.- Father Benjamin Devany, the oldest member of the 
Virginia Methodist Conference, died at his home, near Jerusalem, Southampton 
county, this morning; aged eighty-seven years.  He attended court yesterday 
in usual health. 

****************************************************************************** 

VIRGINIA CONFERENCE. 

THE SIXTH DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 

THE CASE OF REV. MR. RUSSELL INDEFINITELY POSTPONED - 
  BIBLE CAUSE - REPORT OF THE PREACHERS' AID SOCIETY - 
  AN AGENT TO BE APPOINTED - THE HALL FUND - 
  AN APPEAL FROM AN EXPELLED MEMBER - 
  INTERESTING MEMORIAL SERVICES - ADDRESSES BY ELOQUENT MINISTERS. 
[...] 

MEMORIAL SERVICES. 

  At 12 o'clock the special order of the day (the memorial services) was taken 
up.  The religious exercises were conducted by Rev. P.A. Peterson.  He gave 
out and the Conference and congregation sang the 710th hymn, beginning 
   "Jesus, what ecstacy unknown 
    Fills the wide circle around Thy throne," &c. 

  Rev. Dr. Duncan then led in prayer.  He especially invoked Divine favor for 
the families and friends of deceased ministers. 

  "Come ye disconsolate" was then sung. 

  Rev. Paul Whitehead submitted the report of the Committee on Memorials, and 
read a splendid memoir of Rev. George W. Langhorne, prepared by himself.  Mr. 
Langhorne was born in Warwick county, and died in Richmond, February 3, 1876, 
in the sixty-seventh year of his age.  He was forty-six years in the ministry. 
In early life he studied for the law awhile, but left it for mercantile 
pursuits, which he gave up for the ministry. 

  Following the reading of the memoir the hymn "Nearer my God to Thee" was 
sung. 

  Rev. Dr. J.A. Duncan, Rev. Dr. Leonidas Rosser, Rev. E.M. Peterson, Rev. 
W.F. Bayne, Rev. Joseph H. Davis, Rev. P.A. Peterson, Rev. S.A. Steel, Rev. 
Joseph Amiss, Rev. Dr. Closs of North Carolina, Rev. Dr. R.N. Sledd, and Rev. 
Paul Whitehead spoke eloquently of the Christian character and ministerial 
labors of the deceased.  Three of the ministers who spoke of Mr. Langhorne 
were led into the Church through his instrumentality. 

  The hymn beginning "Here I raise my Ebenezer" was then sung. 

  Rev. John N. Jones read the memoir of Rev. Benjamin Devany, who was born in 
Franklin county, N.C., in 1788, and died in Southampton county, Va., in May, 
1876, after a ministry of seventy-one years, aged eighty-nine.  He received a 
liberal education, and was licensed to preach before he was eighteen years 
old.  He offered his services to the Virginia Conference at Norfolk in the 
winter of 1806.  Two years afterward he was received into full connection and 
ordained a deacon by Bishop Asbery at Lynchburg.  For his death, which was 
very sudden, he was fully prepared. The memoir by Mr. Jones was interesting 
and well written, and its reading was listened to with great attention. 

  Tributes to the memory of Mr. Devany were rendered by Rev. George W. Nolley 
and Rev. Dr. L.M. Lee.  Mr. Devany had been on the superannuated list so long 
he was known to but few of the comparatively young members of the Conference. 

  The memoirs were, on motion of Rev. P.A. Peterson, adopted and ordered ot 
[sic; to] be inserted in the minutes. 

  Rev. George W. Nolley, who has been on the superannuated list for two years, 
asked the bishop to restore him to the effective list.  After the usual 
religious exercises the Conference adjourned. 
[...] 


Rev. Benjamin DEVANY, Methodist minister, 
b. Franklin Co., NC, d. 16 May 1876, at home, near Jerusalem (now Courtland), 
   age circa 88, 
"The (Richmond, VA) Daily Dispatch," Wed., May 17, 1876, p. 3, col. 5; 
"The (Richmond, VA) Daily Dispatch," Wed., Nov. 22, 1876, p. 1, col. 3-4 

Likely interred in the DEVANY-YATES family cemetery, 
   off Hwy. 58 Business, east of Courtland. 
   Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, 
   Miscellaneous Cemeteries, Vol. 8 (VIII-61): 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/miscvol8.txt 

He m. Dorothy Briggs, by consent of her guardian, William Briggs; 
   m.bond [Devaney] 21 Dec 1811; sec/wit: Samuel Calvert, Sam Kello. 
   (Southampton Co. M.Reg. p. 212 - 
    omitted from BFA Southampton Project index)  


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/d150b1ob.txt