Samuel Willard

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For other uses, see Samuel Willard (disambiguation).
The Reverend
Samuel Willard
President of Harvard College
In office
1701–1707(acting)
Preceded byIncrease Mather
Succeeded byJohn Leverett the Younger
Personal details
Born(1640-01-31)January 31, 1640
Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colony
DiedSeptember 12, 1707(1707-09-12) (aged 67)
Cambridge, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Resting placeGranary Burying Ground
Spouse(s)
Abigail Sherman
​
(m. 1664)​

Eunice Tyng (m. 1679)
Occupation
Minister
Signature

Samuel Willard (January 31, 1640 – September 12, 1707) was a

Boston, from 1678 until his death. He opposed the Salem witch trials and was acting president of Harvard University
from 1701. He published many sermons; the folio volume, A Compleat Body of Divinity, was published posthumously in 1726.

Early life

Coat of arms of Simon Willard

Willard's parents were Major

Peter Bulkeley, they established the town of Concord, where Samuel was born the sixth child and second son. After the death of his mother, his father remarried twice, and Samuel was one of seventeen children born to the family.[2] At the age of fifteen, Willard entered Harvard College in 1655, graduating in 1659, and was the only member of his class to receive an M.A.[3]

Ministry in Groton

In 1663, Willard began preaching in Groton, then at the very frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town's first minister, John Miller, had become ill and, when he died, the congregation asked Willard to stay, and he was officially ordained by them in 1664.[4]

On August 8, 1664, Willard married Abigail Sherman of

Charlestown, Massachusetts.[citation needed
]

Ministry in Boston

Willard preached at the Third Church in Boston during the illness of Rev.

Priscilla Alden of Plymouth). His wife Abigail died some time in the first half of 1679; in July that year he married Eunice Tyng, a possible sister-in-law of Joseph Dudley.[5]

While in Boston, he married Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger, the parents of the American polymath and Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin.

Church of England

Anglican in the eyes of local Puritans,[7] who later accused him of involvement in a "horrid Popish plot".[8]

Leading Harvard

Willard was the acting president of Harvard College, although having the nominal title of vice-president, from 1701 until his death in 1707.[9]

Works

First page of Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B., attributed to Samuel Willard.
  • Mercy Magnified on a Penitent Prodigal, or a brief discourse, wherein Christs Parable of the lost Son found, is opened and applied. Boston: Samuel Green, for Samuel Philips. 1684.
  • Samuel Willard; Philip English; John Alden (1692). Some Miscellany Observations on Our Present Debates Respecting Witchcraft: In a Dialogue Between S. & B. Philadelphia: William Bradford.
  • Some Miscellany Observations On our present Debates respecting Witchcrafts, in a Dialogue Between S. & B.
  • "A Compleat Body of Divinity". Boston: B. Green. 1726. Internet Archive
  • Some Brief Sacramental Meditations Preparatory for Communion at the Great Ordinance of the Supper (2nd ed.). Boston: Green, Bushell, and Allen. 1743.
  • "A briefe account of a strange & unusuall Providence of God befallen to Elizabeth Knap of Groton" in Samuel A. Green, ed., Groton In The Witchcraft Times, Groton, MA: [s.n.] 1883

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Green, Samuel (1891). An Historical Sketch of Groton, Massachusetts 1655-1890. Groton: Groton, 1894. p. 71.
  2. ^ Van Dyken, pp. 13–14.
  3. ^ Sibley, p. 13.
  4. ^ Van Dyken, pp. 26–27.
  5. ^ Quincy, Josiah. The History of Harvard University. John Owen (1840), vol. I, p. 148.
  6. ^ Lustig, p. 165
  7. ^ Ferguson, p. 141
  8. ISBN 0-7391-0051-3
    .
  9. ^ Quincy, pp. 145–156.

References

  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
    New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

Further reading

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by President of Harvard College
acting
1701–1707 		Succeeded by
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