ECKARD, James Read, missionary, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 November 1805. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, and practiced law in 1'826'30, was a director of public schools in Philadelphia in 1828, but afterward studied for the ministry and was ordained as a Presbyterian evangelist on 21 July 1833. He was a missionary in the Island of Ceylon, residence in Jaffna, 1833'5, in Madura, Hindostan, 1835'6, again in Jaffna from 1836 till 1843, agent of the American board in Georgia in 1844, missionary and principal of the Chatham academy, Savannah, Georgia, in 1844'6, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., in 1848'58, and at Asbury, New Jersey, in 1860'7.

From 1858 till 1872 he was professor of rhetoric and history in Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. When in Ceylon, Dr. Eckard published, in the Tamil language, an essay on "Faith and Justification" (Jaffna, Ceylon, 1834), also, in English and Tamil, the "IIindoo Traveller" (Jaffna, 1836), designed for natives educated to read English. On his return he issued a narrative of some of the missionary operations in India (Philadelphia, 1844), and "An Outline of English Law from Blackstone." He received the degree of D. D. from Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

His wife, Margaret Esther Bayard, born on Cumberland Island, Georgia, 18 October 1810; died in Sumter County, South Carolina, 29 February 1872. She was second directress of the Washington, D. C., and Protestant orphan asylum in 1858, and gave her husband much assistance in his missionary work in Ceylon and Madura, Hindostan.