Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/436

 ELIOT

ELIOT

He also published American Ouitributions to Cirili-
 * alion (18117), aud Edticalional liefunn (1898). His

aunual rep<.)rts as president of Harvard describe the development of the university during a period of considerable progress in American educa- tion.

ELIOT, Jared, clergyman, was born in Guil- ford. Conn., Nov. 7, lOSJ; sun of the Kev. Jo.';ei)h Eliot. A.M. (Harvard. 1638, died 161)4). and grand- s<in of the Rev. John Eliot, the aix)Stle to the Indians. He was graduated at Yale in 1706. was a school teiicher at Guilford. 1706-07, and suc- ceeded the Rev. Abraham Pierson as rector of Emmanuel church. Killingworth, serving 1707- 63. He was also a physician, an agriculturist, a scientist, and an author. He received his de- gree of A.M. frtun Yale and from Harvard in 179, and was a trustee of Y'ale corporation, 1730- 63, and a fellow of the Royal society, London, 1757-63. He gave to Y'ale by his will the first contribution to a library fund. He published sermons, an essay on field husbandry (1760), and an essay on the art of making the be.st iron from black sea sand (1762). He died in Killingworth, Conn.. April 2-2. 1763.

ELIOT, John, clergj^man, was born in Boston, Mass.. May 31, 17.'>4; son of the Rev. Andrew and Elizjibeth (Langdon) Eliot. He was graduated from Harvard in 1772, and was licensed to preach in 1776. He .succeeded his father as pastor of the New North church, Boston, Nov. 3, 1779. He was a fellow of Harvard, 1804-13; was an original member of the Massachusetts historical society, and a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He was married to Ann, daughter of Jacob Treadwell, of Portsmouth, Mass. Edin- burgli university conferred upon him the degree of S.T.D. in 1797. He published a sermon to Free JIasons (1782) ; a charge to Free Masons (1783) ; a Biofjraphical Dictionary of Eminent Characters in Nem Emjland (1809) ; and many other works. He died in Bo.ston, Mass., Feb. 14, 1813.

ELIOT, John, pioneer mi.ssionary, was born eitlier in Nasing, Essex coimty, or more jn-obably in Widford. Hertfordshire, England, as his bap- tLsra is recorded in that parish on Aug. 5, 1604, as the son of Bennett Eliot, a yeoman. His father made his will Nov. 5, 1621, and bequeathed out of the profits of his land £8 annually to " trusty and well beloved friends " for the maintenance of his son John in the University of Cambridge " where he is a schollar." John was graduated at Jesus college in 1622, with tlie degree of A.B. He was a teacher in a grammar school at Little Baddow, near Chelmsford, established by the Rev. Thomas Hooker. He probably took holy orders in the Church of England, as his name is given in Neal's list of emigrant clergj'. As a non-conformist, he sought refuge in the New

World, and landed in Boston, Mass., from the ship Lyon in company with Governor Wintlirop's wife and children, Nov. 4. 1631. where he minis- tered to the First church of Boston in the ab- sence of Mr. Wilson who returned on a visit to England. Eliot's three brothers and three sisters were with him in Bo.ston. The church at Roxbury, whose first minister was Mr. Weld, called him Nov. 5, 1632, and he became the " teacher " of the church and main- tained the relation- ship of pastor during his lifetime, most of the time alone, but having as colleagues Mr. Weld, Mr. Dan- forth and Mr. Wal- ter. He took a lively interest in the secu- lar affairs of the commonwealth, especially with reference to treaties with the Indians, of whose rights he was ever jealous. He was in frequent unpleasant controversy with the civil author- ities and some of his published statements were condemned and suppressed b}- the general court. He took part in the examination of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson in 1637, and he agreed with the court that banished her for her religious opinions. His apostleship to the Indians began as soon as he had learned their language, and on Oct. 28, 1646, with a trio of friends, he held a meeting in the wigwam of Waaubon, on the hill Nonantum, about five miles west of Roxbury. From that time he made missionary visits fortnightly, and in 1600 established at Natick the first Indian church in America, the form of worship being similar to that used in Congregational churches in New England. In this church he baptised the natives and during his lifetime twenty-four of his con- verts became preachers of the gospel. His knowl- edge of the language was acquired with difficulty, ov/ing to the various dialects, his only assistant being an Indian boy. He so far succeeded that in 1661 his Indian New Testament Avas published at Cambridge under the auspices of the London society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. Two years later he issued his translation of the Old Testament with a catechism and the Psalms of David in metre. When King Philip's war oc- curred in 1675, John Eliot had fomided fourteen Indian churches in as many towns in Massachu- setts, exclusive of the Plymouth colony and the islands, and the worshippers embraced nearly