SPEECE, Conrad, clergyman, born in New London, Virginia, 7 November, 1776; died in Staunton, Virginia, 15 February, 1836. He labored on his father's farm till he was sixteen years old, then attended a grammar-school near his home, and finished his education at Liberty Hall (afterward Washington college). He studied divinity, and while a tutor in Hampden Sidney college in 1799 became a Baptist preacher, but he was licensed in 1801 by the presbytery of Hanover. He was appointed to missionary work, with occasional pastoral charges, in eastern Virginia and Maryland and in the valley west of the Blue Ridge till 1813, when he became pastor of Augusta church, near Staunton, Virginia Here Dr. Speece spent the remaining twenty-two years of his life. He was among the eminent preachers of the day, and of great influence in his denomination. He was also noted for his benefactions, and especially for his strenuous efforts to promote the temperance-reform. He received the degree of D. D. from Princeton in 1820. He published " The Mountaineer," a volume of essays written in 1813-'16 after the manner of " The Spectator," single sermons (1810-'32); and hymns, the most important of which is "The Cross of Christ," in the general assembly's collection.