BLAIR, SAMUEL: American Presbyterian; b. in Ireland June 14, 1712; d. at Londonderry, Penn., July 5, 1751. He came early to America; studied at Tennent's "Log College" at Neshaminy; was ordained pastor of Middletown and Shrewsbury, N. J., 1734; in 1739 removed to Londonderry or Fagg's Manor (40 m. w.s.w. of Philadelphia),

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Chester County, Penn., and established there a school after the model of the "Log College." He was an adherent of Gilbert Tennent in the controversies of his time. His principal writings were collected by his brother, Rev. John Blair (Philadelphia, 1754); they include sermons, a treatise on predestination and reprobation, and an account of a revival in his congregation at Londonderry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Consult the biographical sketch in A. Alexander, The Founder and Principal Alumni of the Log College, pp. 164-196, Philadelphia, 1851.

BLAIR, WILLIAM: United Free Church of Scotland; b. at Cluny (23 m. s.w. of St. Andrews), Fifeshire, Jan. 13, 1830. He studied at the University of St. Andrews (M.A., 1850), and in 1856 was ordained to the United Presbyterian ministry at Dunblane, Perthshire. He was clerk to the Stirling Presbytery for twenty-five years, and to the United Presbyterian Synod 1894–1900; since 1900 he has been clerk to the United Free Church General Assembly, and was moderator of the United Presbyterian Synod in 1898-99. He has been chaplain to the famous Black Watch since 1892, a member of the University Court of St. Andrews University since 1903. In theology he adheres strictly to the Westminster Confession. He has written Chronicles of Aberbrothoc (Arbroath, 1853); Rambling Recollections: or, Scenes worth Seeing (Edinburgh, 1857); Archbishop Leighton, Life with Selections (London, 1883); Jubilee Memorial Volume (Edinburgh, 1887); History and Principles of the United Presbyterian Church (1888); and Robert Leighton, Extracts and Introduction (London, 1907).

BLAISE, SAINT. See HELPERS IN NEED.

BLAKESLEE, ERASTUS: Congregationalist; b. at Plymouth, Conn., Sept. 2, 1838; d. at Brookline, Mass., July 12, 1908. While a sophomore at Yale in 1861 he enlisted as a cavalryman. He was mustered out in 1865 as brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. After a business career he studied in Andover Theological Seminary from 1876 to 1879, and entered the Congregational ministry. He had three charges, at Greenfield, Mass., Fairhaven, Conn., and at Spencer, Mass. (1887-92), and resigned the last that he might give his whole time to the preparation and publication of the "Bible Study Union Lessons," which are not only widely used in this country, but translated into several missionary languages. With the teachers' aids, issued separately, more than 160 volumes of lessons were published.

FRANK SANDERS.