Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/714

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676
LEEDS
LEFEVRE

return studied the classics, and then was prepared for the ministry at Garrett biblical institute, Evanston, 111., and in 1858 was admitted to the Baltimore conference, became pastor of a Method- ist church in that city, and subsequently held charges at Martinsburg, Va., Baltimore, and. Cum- berland, Ind., and Albany and Saratoga, N, Y. In 1886 he was chosen president of New York state temperance society. In 1860 he wrote for the " Baltimore Exchange " a series of historical papers on the '• Rise and Progress of American Method- ism," and afterward issued a volume of temperance poems (1863). In 1874, as special correspondent of the Baltimore "American," he wrote the " Round Lake Letters " for that journal. He has served on the editorial staff of the " Methodist " and " Baltimore Record," has written for the M Met- ropolitan Pulpit," and contributed largely to several historical publications. He received in 1879 the degree of D. D. from St. John's college, Annapolis, Md. He has also published " The Drunkard" (1869); " Ingersoll and the Bible" (1880) : and " The Inebriates " (1886).


LEEDS, Daniel, author, b. in England in 1652 ; d. in Burlington, N. J., 28 Sept., 1720. He settled at Shrewsbury, N. J., about 1677, and afterward removed to Burlington, where he became one of the foremost men in the province of West Jersey. In 1682 he was appointed surveyor-general of the province, and was chosen to the assembly. Upon the recommendation of the Earl of Nottingham, he was appointed a member of Lord Cornbury's council in 1702, in which post he served several years. He was at first a Quaker, but became a violent opponent of that denomination. He pub- lished a series of almanacs at Philadelphia and New York from 1687 till 1713, his first being the second almanac that was issued in the middle colonies. Among his other works, which are aimed at the Quakers, except his compilation entitled " The Temple of Wisdom " (Philadelphia, 1688), are " The News of a Trumpet " (1697) ; " Hue and Cry against Error" (1698) ; " A Trumpet Sounded " (1699) ; " The Rebuker Rebuked " (1703) ; and " The Great Mystery of Fox-Craft Discovered " (part i., 1704 ; part ii., 1706).


LEEDS, John, astronomer, b. in Bay Hundred, Talbot co., Md., 18 May, 1705; d. in Wade's Point, plantation, Md., in March, 1780. He was clerk of Talbot county court for forty years, and was sub- sequently a judge of the provincial court. In 1760 he was commissioned to supervise the returns of Mason and Dixon of the boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and was surveyor-general of Maryland at the time of his death. He published " Observations of the Transit of Venus," in " Philo- sophical Transactions " (London, 1769).


LEESER, Isaac, clergyman, b. in Neuenkirchen, Prussia, 12 Dec, 1806 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 1 Feb., 1868. He arrived in Richmond, Va., in 1824, and after engaging in commerce was called to the pastorate of a Philadelphia synagogue in 1829. His literary labors began early, with translations from the German and articles in defence of Judaism ; also with the publication of volumes of sermons, catechisms, and the editing of religious and devo- tional works. In 1843 he issued " The Occident," a monthly, the pioneer in Jewish periodical litera- ture. He published " Instructions in the Mosaic Religion," translated from the German (Philadel- phia, 1830); "The Jews and the Mosaic Law" (1833) ; " Discourses, Argumentative and Devo- tional, on the Subject of the Jewish Religion " (1836) ; " Portuguese Form of Prayer, in Hebrew and English" (1837-8); "Hebrew Spelling and Reading Book" (1838); "Catechism for Young Children" (1839); " Discourses "(1840); an edition of Grace Aguilar's "Spirit of Judaism" (1842); " Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine," from the Hebrew of Rabbi Joseph Schwartz; and a translation of the Scrip- tures from the original Hebrew, the work by which he is best known (1845-'53). Mr. Leeser was | zealous worker in charitable and educational fields, possessed a wonderful memory, and was esteemed for his honesty and singleness of purpose. He be- longed to the conservative school.


LEETE, William, governor of Connecticut, b. in England about 1603 ; d. in Hartford, Conn., 16 April, 1683. He was educated in England as a law- yer, and, emigrating to this country in 1637, set- tled in New Haven, and was subsequently a found- er of Guilford, Conn., and one of the pillars of the church there. He was deputy governor in 1661-'5, was frequently a commissioner of the colony, re- elected governor in 1676, and afterward annually chosen until his death. Leete was an ardent re- publican, and befriended and hospitably enter- tained the regicides Edward Whalley, William Goff, and John Dixwell while he was deputy in 1661. In July, 1675, when Edmund Andros, governor under the grant of the Duke of York, proceeded with armed men to Connecticut to vindicate his jurisdiction as far as the river, Leete convened the assembly, and signed the proclamation that was forwarded to Capt. Thomas Bull, who com- manded the garrison at Say brook. This procla- mation, though full of loyalty to the king, forbade Andros's landing, and protested against his illegal proceedings. Dr. John Trumbull says of him : " He presided in times of the greatest difficulty, yet always with such integrity and wisdom as to meet the public approbation. An island near Guil- ford bears the governors name.


LEFEBVRE-DESNOUETTES, Charles (leh-faibr'-day-noo-et'), French soldier, b. in Paris, France, 14 Sept., 1773 ; d. at sea, 22 April, 1822. He served in the French army in Belgium in 1792, was aide-de-camp to Napoleon at Marengo, became brigadier-general in 1806, and general of division in 1808. He was made a peer in 1815, fought at Fleurus and Waterloo, and after this battle was condemned to death by the royalists, but escaped to the United States, where he attempted, with Gen. Lallemand (q. v.), to found a colony of French refugees in Alabama. While in this country he was in correspondence with Napoleon for the purpose of effecting his rescue from St. Helena. On the death of the latter, Lefebvre received by his will 150,000 francs, but was lost at sea while returning to Europe.


LEFEVRE, Peter Paul, R. C. bishop, b. in Roulers, West Flanders, 30 April, 1804 ; d. in Detroit. Mich., 4 March, 1869. He finished his studies in Paris, left that city for the United States in 1828, and, going to St. Louis, Mo., was ordained subdeacon by Bishop Rosati in 1831. In the same year he was ordained priest and stationed at New Madrid. Mo., but after a few months was transferred to the pastorate of Salt river, consisting of the northern part of Missouri, the western part of Illinois, and southern Iowa. This was the largest and most laborious mission ever attended by a single priest. In one of his expeditions to a distant part of his charge he sustained an injury to his ankle from which he never recovered. At length his health was broken by his labors, and in 1841 he went to France to rest. While there he was nominated bishop of Zela in partibus and co-adjutor bishop of Detroit, and on his return to the United States he was consecrated at Philadelphia