Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/477

 HUNTINGTON

HUNTINGTON

ity of Philadelphia, and shared with "Washing- ton the hardsliips at Valley Forge, 1777-78. In May, 1780, he was ordered again to the North river and was an officer of the courts-martial that tried Gen. Charles Lee in July, and Maj. John Andre in September. At the close of the year his was the only Connecticut brigade that remained in the service. He was bre vetted major-general for his services in the war of the Revolution and was one of the four American officei"s aiijiointed to draft the constitution of the Society of the Cincin- nati, reported May 13,1783. After the war he was sheriff, state treasurer, and delegate from Con- nec;ticut to the convention that adopted the Federal constitution. He was appointed by President Washington collector of the port of New London, and served 1789-1815. He was a member of the first board of foreign missions. He entertained Washington, Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski and Lauzan. His first wife, Faith, was a daughter of Governor Trumbull, and his second wife, Ann, was the daughter of Thomas Moore, and sister of Bishop Richard Channing Moore, of Virginia. Stephen Moore, his wife's uncle, was the owner of West Point, N.Y., and it was through the recommendation of General Hunt- ington that the spot was selected for the site of the U.S. Military academy. He died in New London, Conn., Sept. 25, 1818.

HUNTINGTON, Joshua, clergyman, was born in Norwich, Conn., Jan. 31, 1786; son of Gen. Jedidiah and Ann (Moore) Huntington and grand- son of Gen. Jabez and Elizabeth (Backus) Hun- tington. He was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1804, A.M., 1807; and studied theology under Dr. Dvvight, the Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Goshen, Conn., and Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, Mass. He was licensed to preach in September, 1806 ; and preached in various pulpits until he was ordained as colleague pastor of the Old South church, Boston, May 18, 1808, with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eckley. Dr. Eckley died, April 30, 1811, and Mr. Huntington became sole pastor. He was record- ing secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, 1814 ; helped to found the So- ciety for Educating Pious Youth for tlie Gospel Ministry, 1815, which society became known as the American Educational society ; declined an election as resident member of the Massachusetts Historical society in 1816 ; was first president of the Society for the Moral and Religious Instruc- tion of the Poor, founded in 1816 ; and was elected secretary of the Boston Foreign Mission society in 1819. He suffered greatly from ill-health dur- ing the last years of his ministry. He was mar- ried on May 18, 1809, the first anniversary of his ordination, to Susan, daughter of the Rev. Achilles Mansfield, of Killingworth, Conn., and a descendant on her mother's side from John

Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. She wrote " Little Lucy, or the Careless Child Reformed" (1820) ; and her memoirs, published after her death, and containing extracts from her journal and letters, were prepared by the Rev. Benjamin B. Wisher, passed through four American edi- tions and were republished in England and Scot- land. Mr. Huntington received the honorary degree of M.A. from Harvard in 1808. He pub- lished : Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Abigail Waters (1817). He died at Groton, Mass., Sept. 11, 1819. HUNTINGTON, Samuel, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, was born in Windham, Scotland county. Conn., July 3, 1731 ; son of Nathaniel and Mehetabel (Thurston) Huntington ; grandson of Deacon Joseph and Rebecca (Adgate) Huntington ; great- grandson of Deacon Simon and Sarah (Clark) Huntington, and greats-grandson of Simon and Mar- garet (Baret) Hunt- ington, who left Nor- wich, England, for Massachusetts Bay in 1633 with their sons, William, Thomas, Christopher and Si- mon, and the father dying of smallpox at sea, the mother set- tled in Roxborough, Massachusetts Bay colony, and married Thomas Stoughton, of Dorchester, in 1735-36. Nathaniel Huntington was a farmer in moderate circum- stances and Samuel had a limited education, worked on the farm, and learned the trade of a cooper. He did not begin serious study till he was twenty-two years old, wdien he learned to read the Latin language and studied law. He settled as a lawyer in Norwich, Conn., about 1758, and was married, April 17, 1761, to Martha, daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, pastor of the church at Windham. They had no children. He represented the town of Norwich in the gen- eral assembly in 1764, where he opposed the stamp act. He was, however, appointed king's attorney in 1765, and held the office for several years. He was appointed associate judge of the superior court of Connecticut, and was a member of the upper house of the general assembly in 1775. He was a delegate to the Continental con- gress, 1776-82, signed the Declaration of Independ- ence of July 4, 1776, and was president of the body from Sept. 28. 1779, to July 6, 1781. On re- tiring he received a vote of thanks " in testimony of appreciation of his conduct in the chair and in execution of public business." In August, 1781,

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