ODELL, Jonathan, clergyman, born in Newark, New Jersey, 25 September, 1737; died in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 25 November, 1818. He was the son of John Odell and Temperance, daughter of Reverend Jonathan Dickinson, first president of Princeton college. The first of the family in this country was William Odell, who was at Concord, Massachusetts, as early as 1639, and afterward removed to Fairfield, Connecticut Jonathan Odell was graduated at the College of New Jersey, then at Newark, in the class of 1754, studied medicine, and served as surgeon in the British army. He subsequently resigned and went to England, where he prepared for the ministry and was ordained deacon, 21 December, 1766, in the Chapel royal of St. James palace. In the following year he was advanced to priest's orders. Returning to this country in 1767, he became rector of St. Ann's (now St. Mary's) church in Burlington, New Jersey During the Revolution, Dr Odell became conspicuous through his devotion to the royal cause, and was frequently in conflict with the American forces. When he was pursued he often sought safety in a secret chamber in the house of Margaret Morris, a Quakeress, who lived in the homestead of Governor William Franklin, which she had purchased from him on his removal to Perth Amboy. About this time Jonathan Odell became joint author of a publication called "Loyal Verses of Stansbury and Odell," which obtained considerable popularity among adherents of the crown. His ode on the king's birthday, 4 June, 1776, beginning "O'er Britannia's happy land," is said to have suggested the words of "Hail, Columbia." In 1782 Dr. Odell delivered an address at the presentation of standards to the king's American dragoons--an imposing ceremony, at which many distinguished officers of the English army and navy were present, including Prince William Henry (afterward William IV.), who was then a midshipman in the fleet of Admiral Digby. After the evacuation of New York city by Sir Guy Carleton in 1783, Dr. Odell returned to England, but he afterward revisited this country and received a seat in the executive council of the province of New Brunswick, where for more than thirty years he filled the offices of secretary, registrar of records, and clerk of the council.--His only son, William Franklin, born in Burlington, New Jersey, 19 October, 1774" died in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 25 December, 1844, succeeded his father as provincial secretary of New Brunswick in 1812, which portfolio he held till his death. He was employed under the British commissioners in 1817-'18 in charge of the survey and location of the boundary between New Brunswick and the United States under the treaty of Ghent.--William Franklin's son, William Hunter, born in New Brunswick, 26 November, 1811, was educated at King's college, Fredericton, where he was graduated in 1832. He was admitted to the bat' in 1838 and appointed clerk of the supreme court of New Brunswick, which office he resigned in the same year on being appointed deputy provincial secretary registrar, and clerk of the executive council. He was a judge of the court of common pleas in 1847, and a member of the legislative council of New Brunswick by royal warrant in 1850, where he sat till the union. He was a member of the executive council of New Brunswick and postmaster-general from 1865 until the resignation of the government in 1866. In Nay, 1867, he was called to the Dominion senate by royal proclamation, he is Conservative in his politics.