Sunday, January 28, was a remarkable day in the history of Bethesda. James Wright, Esq. (created a baronet in 1772), Governor of Georgia, the Council of Georgia, the House of Assembly with their president, James Habersham, Esq., and a large number of colonists, assembled at Whitefield’s Orphan House, for the purpose indicated in the following extract from the Journals of the House of Assembly:—
“Commons House of Assembly, January 29, 1770.
“Mr. Speaker reported, that he, with the House, having waited on the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, in consequence of his invitation, at the Orphan House Academy, heard him preach a very suitable and pious sermon on the occasion; and, with great pleasure, observed the promising appearance of improvement towards the good purposes intended, and the decency and propriety of behaviour of the several residents there; and were sensibly affected, when they saw the happy success which has attended Mr. Whitefield’s indefatigable zeal for promoting the welfare of the province in general, and the Orphan House in particular.
“Ordered, that this report be printed in the Gazette.
“John Simpson, Clerk.”
The article printed in the Georgia Gazette, and which Gillies gives in his “Life of Whitefield,” states, among other things, that “the two additional wings for apartments for students were a hundred and fifty feet each in length, and were in a state of forwardness.” Instead, however, of inserting here the official announcement of the Georgian Legislature, a letter, written the day after the rulers of the Province assembled at Bethesda, is introduced, as containing the same facts, but in greater detail. It was addressed to a friend in London:—
“Savannah, January 29, 1770, Monday morning.
“You would have been pleased to have been at the Orphan House Academy yesterday, where his Excellency our Governor, the Hon. the Council, and the Commons House of Assembly, were agreeably entertained in consequence of an invitation given them by the Founder, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield. Everything was conducted with much decency and order. His Excellency was received at the bottom door by the officers, orphans, and other domestics; and was then escorted upstairsby Mr. Whitefield, through a gallery near sixty feet long, into a large room thirty feet in length, with six windows, canvassed and made ready for blue paper hangings. In a room of the same extent over against it (intended for the library, and in which a considerable number of books is already deposited), was prepared, on a long table and adjacent sideboard, cold tongue, ham, tea, etc., for the gentlemen to refresh themselves with, after their ten miles’ ride, from Savannah. Between eleven and twelve, the bell rung for public worship. A procession was formed in the long gallery, and moved forward to the chapel in the following order: The orphans, in round, black, flat caps, and black gowns; the chaplain in his gown; the workmen and assistants; the steward and superintendent, with their white wands; the clerk of the chapel; the Founder in his university square cap, with the Rev. Mr. Ellington, now missionary at Augusta, and designed to be chaplain, and teacher of English and elocution at the Orphan House Academy; then his Excellency, followed by his Council and the Chief Justice; then the Speaker, succeeded by the other Commons, and a number of gentlemen and strangers, among whom were the Governor’s two sons. As the procession moved along, the clerk of the chapel began a doxology, the singing of which was harmonious and striking. At the chapel door, the orphans, officers, and domestics broke into ranks on the right hand and the left; and, as his Excellency with his train went up the chapel stairs, the orphans sang,—
‘Live by heaven and earth ador’d,
Three in One, and One in Three,