American clergyman and educator, born in Guilford, CT, on the 14th of October 1696. He was educated at Yale College, which was then located at Saybrook, CT, and when the institution was removed to New Haven, became a tutor, studying theology at the same time. In 1720 he was ordained minister in the Congregational Church and given a pastorate at West Haven. Later, he became converted to Episcopacy, and in 1722 went to England with two friends and was ordained priest. He returned and became pastor at Stratford, and during his pastorate was engaged in many theological discussions with “dissenting clergymen.” He became acquainted with Dean Berkeley during the latter’s residence in Newport, and induced him to make gifts to Yale. He also accepted Berkeley’s system of philosophy, which he embodied in his own philosophical works. In 1754 he accepted the presidency of King’s (now Columbia) College, which was just founded, and consisted of eight students, who recited in Trinity Church vestry-room. He labored for eight years to set the institution on a firm basis, resigned in 1763 on account of old age, and returned to his old parish at Stratford, where he remained till his death on the 6th of January 1772. Among his works are System of Morality, afterward published under the title Elementa Philosophica, in Philadelphia, by Benjamin Franklin, and An English and Hebrew Grammar. His Life was written by the Rev. E. Edwards Beardsley (1874).
