John G. Palfrey
Encyclopedia
John Gorham Palfrey was an American clergyman and historian who served as a U.S. Representative
from Massachusetts
. A Unitarian
minister, he played a leading role in the early history of Harvard Divinity School
, and he later became involved in politics as a State Representative and U.S. Congressman.
. In 1803, his mother died soon after giving birth, and in 1804 his father moved to Baltimore. Palfrey began school at the Berry Street Academy in Boston and studied Greek and Latin with William Ellery Channing
. He completed preparatory studies as a "charity student" at Phillips Exeter Academy
, Exeter, New Hampshire
, and graduated from Harvard University
in 1815. He studied theology at Harvard Divinity School
, graduating in its second class.
on June 17, 1818. He held the usual duties of preaching two sermons every Sunday (with a substitute every fourth Sunday), calling on all his parishioners at least once a year, teaching Sunday school, and visiting the sick and poor. He was a member of the American Unitarian Association
.
When the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education, which controlled Harvard Divinity School at the time, appealed to alumni for funds to build Divinity Hall
, Palfrey preached two sermons to raise $2,000. He became the society's secretary in 1827 and a Harvard Overseer
in 1828, when he also began teaching part-time. In 1831, after Andrews Norton
retired in 1830, he became a Professor of Biblical Literature and Dean of Faculty at the Divinity School and removed to Cambridge
. In this position, in addition to teaching the Bible, Hebrew, and other semitic languages, he was in charge of the building, organized faculty meetings, and was the chief disciplinarian. He made changes, including instituting a new set of rules for the school, reorganizing the curriculum, and dealing with complaints from faculty members about their salaries.
As a professor, he taught Unitarian ministers such as Andrew Peabody, William Henry Channing
, James Freeman Clarke
, Chandler Robbins, William Greenleaf Eliot
, Cyrus A. Bartol, Charles Timothy Brooks
, George Edward Ellis
, Abiel Abbot Livermore, Theodore Parker
, Henry Whitney Bellows
, Edmund Hamilton Sears, Rufus Phineas Stebbins
, the philosopher William Dexter Wilson, the artist Christopher Pearse Cranch
, the music critic John Sullivan Dwight
, and the Swedenborgian Benjamin Fiske Barrett.
After living in Divinity Hall with his students for several months, Palfrey built a house north of the college on 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) he bought, which was the Palfrey home until 1916, when it was bought by Harvard. It still stands today as Palfrey House, part of the Department of Physics.
from 1835 to 1843, having become a financial partner in that publication in 1817 and having bought the Review in 1835. Difficulty managing both teaching and editing led him to resign from the Divinity School in 1839 when the Corporation would not allow him to teach part time. He sold the Review in 1842 after it had become a financial liability, partly due to the Panic of 1837
.
As a writer he is best known by his History of New England to the Revolutionary War, in five volumes, of which the first appeared in 1859 and the last posthumously in 1890. The writing of this consumed much of his later life, and he worked with early state sources and made a research trip to England in 1856. He also wrote various works on theology earlier in his career.
in 1842 and 1843. He was chairman of the House Standing Committee on Education, working closely with Horace Mann
. During his second term, however, the Whigs were in the minority, leading to several legislative disappointments, so he sought state office instead of re-election to the House. He became Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
, a post he held from 1844 to 1848. As secretary, a largely ceremonial position, he introduced statistical tables which set a new standard for the state, organized the Revolutionary War records to better answer pension claims, and organized the state's 14,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets of written records.
Palfrey was elected as a Whig
to the Thirtieth
Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He was a "Conscience Whig" who opposed slavery, having freed sixteen slaves inherited from his father (his father and two brothers were successful Louisiana plantation owners. In Washington, he was a member of a small group of anti-slavery congressmen who met regularly, including Joshua Giddings. However, his anti-slavery views alienated him from more conservative members of his district, such as the "Cotton Whigs', so, in 1848, he was an unsuccessful in his campaign for reelection on the Free-Soil ticket. He was also the Free-Soil candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
in 1851.
As the anti-slavery movement grew in Massachusetts and the Republican Party
emerged, Palfrey's political fortunes improved again. After Abraham Lincoln
's election in 1861, Senator Charles Sumner
secured him appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a post he held from 1861 to 1867. He suffered a partial stroke in the mid-1870s and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on April 26, 1881. He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery
, Cambridge.
(1831), historian of the Civil War; and John Carver (1833–1906), a military engineer in the Civil War and a textile manufacturer.
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. A Unitarian
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
minister, he played a leading role in the early history of Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
, and he later became involved in politics as a State Representative and U.S. Congressman.
Early life and education
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Mary Sturgis Gorham and John Palfrey, a son of the merchant and Patriot William PalfreyWilliam Palfrey
William Palfrey was an American Patriot born in Boston, Massachusetts. Working as John Hancock's chief clerk, he was active in the movements that preceded the American Revolution, and visited England in 1771...
. In 1803, his mother died soon after giving birth, and in 1804 his father moved to Baltimore. Palfrey began school at the Berry Street Academy in Boston and studied Greek and Latin with William Ellery Channing
William Ellery Channing
Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...
. He completed preparatory studies as a "charity student" at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...
, and graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1815. He studied theology at Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
, graduating in its second class.
Theologian
Palfrey was ordained minister of Boston's Brattle Square Unitarian ChurchBrattle Street Church
The Brattle Street Church was a Congregational and Unitarian church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.- Brief history :...
on June 17, 1818. He held the usual duties of preaching two sermons every Sunday (with a substitute every fourth Sunday), calling on all his parishioners at least once a year, teaching Sunday school, and visiting the sick and poor. He was a member of the American Unitarian Association
American Unitarian Association
The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...
.
Divinity Hall
Divinity Hall is an historic building that is part of Harvard Divinity School on 12 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The hall was built in 1825 by Willard Solomon and Thomas W. Sumner and added to the National Historic Register in 1986....
, Palfrey preached two sermons to raise $2,000. He became the society's secretary in 1827 and a Harvard Overseer
Harvard Board of Overseers
The Harvard Board of Overseers is one of Harvard University's two governing boards...
in 1828, when he also began teaching part-time. In 1831, after Andrews Norton
Andrews Norton
Andrews Norton was an American preacher and theologian. Along with William Ellery Channing, he was the leader of mainstream Unitarianism of the early and middle 19th century....
retired in 1830, he became a Professor of Biblical Literature and Dean of Faculty at the Divinity School and removed to Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. In this position, in addition to teaching the Bible, Hebrew, and other semitic languages, he was in charge of the building, organized faculty meetings, and was the chief disciplinarian. He made changes, including instituting a new set of rules for the school, reorganizing the curriculum, and dealing with complaints from faculty members about their salaries.
As a professor, he taught Unitarian ministers such as Andrew Peabody, William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing
William Henry Channing was an American Unitarian clergyman, writer and philosopher.-Biography:William Henry Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts...
, James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke , an American theologian and author.-Biography:Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, James Freeman Clarke attended the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard College in 1829, and Harvard Divinity School in 1833...
, Chandler Robbins, William Greenleaf Eliot
William Greenleaf Eliot
William Greenleaf Eliot was an American educator, Unitarian minister, and civic leader in Missouri. He is most notable for founding Washington University in St. Louis, but also contributed to the founding of numerous other civic institutions, such as the St...
, Cyrus A. Bartol, Charles Timothy Brooks
Charles Timothy Brooks
Charles Timothy Brooks was a noted American translator of German works, a poet, Transcendentalist and a Unitarian pastor.-Biography:...
, George Edward Ellis
George Edward Ellis
George Edward Ellis was a Unitarian clergyman and historian.-Biography:Ellis was born and died in Boston. He graduated from Harvard in 1833, and then from the Divinity School in 1836. After two years' travel in Europe, he was ordained, on 11 March 1840, as pastor of the Harvard Unitarian Church,...
, Abiel Abbot Livermore, Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
, Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows
Henry Whitney Bellows was American clergyman, and the planner and president of the United States Sanitary Commission, the leading soldiers' aid society, during the American Civil War...
, Edmund Hamilton Sears, Rufus Phineas Stebbins
Rufus Phineas Stebbins
Rufus Phineas Stebbins was a Massachusetts and Pennsylvania clergyman.-Biography:...
, the philosopher William Dexter Wilson, the artist Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Christopher Pearse Cranch was an American writer and artist.-Biography:Cranch was born in the District of Columbia. He attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School. He briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister...
, the music critic John Sullivan Dwight
John Sullivan Dwight
John Sullivan Dwight was a Unitarian minister, transcendentalist and America's first influential classical music critic.-Biography:...
, and the Swedenborgian Benjamin Fiske Barrett.
After living in Divinity Hall with his students for several months, Palfrey built a house north of the college on 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) he bought, which was the Palfrey home until 1916, when it was bought by Harvard. It still stands today as Palfrey House, part of the Department of Physics.
Editor and author
To add to his income, Palfrey was at various times in his life editor of several publications. First, in 1824 and 1825 he was editor of the Christian Disciple, which he renamed the Christian Examiner. He was editor of the North American ReviewNorth American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
from 1835 to 1843, having become a financial partner in that publication in 1817 and having bought the Review in 1835. Difficulty managing both teaching and editing led him to resign from the Divinity School in 1839 when the Corporation would not allow him to teach part time. He sold the Review in 1842 after it had become a financial liability, partly due to the Panic of 1837
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis or market correction in the United States built on a speculative fever. The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but on May 10, 1837 in New York City, every bank began to accept payment only in specie ,...
.
As a writer he is best known by his History of New England to the Revolutionary War, in five volumes, of which the first appeared in 1859 and the last posthumously in 1890. The writing of this consumed much of his later life, and he worked with early state sources and made a research trip to England in 1856. He also wrote various works on theology earlier in his career.
Politician
Not having been politically involved or written in newspapers, he was nevertheless elected as a Whig to the Massachusetts House of RepresentativesMassachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...
in 1842 and 1843. He was chairman of the House Standing Committee on Education, working closely with Horace Mann
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
. During his second term, however, the Whigs were in the minority, leading to several legislative disappointments, so he sought state office instead of re-election to the House. He became Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth
The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth is the principal public information officer of the state government of the U.S...
, a post he held from 1844 to 1848. As secretary, a largely ceremonial position, he introduced statistical tables which set a new standard for the state, organized the Revolutionary War records to better answer pension claims, and organized the state's 14,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets of written records.
Palfrey was elected as a Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
to the Thirtieth
30th United States Congress
The Thirtieth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1847 to March 3, 1849, during the last two years of...
Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He was a "Conscience Whig" who opposed slavery, having freed sixteen slaves inherited from his father (his father and two brothers were successful Louisiana plantation owners. In Washington, he was a member of a small group of anti-slavery congressmen who met regularly, including Joshua Giddings. However, his anti-slavery views alienated him from more conservative members of his district, such as the "Cotton Whigs', so, in 1848, he was an unsuccessful in his campaign for reelection on the Free-Soil ticket. He was also the Free-Soil candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
Governor of Massachusetts
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
in 1851.
As the anti-slavery movement grew in Massachusetts and the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
emerged, Palfrey's political fortunes improved again. After Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's election in 1861, Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
secured him appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a post he held from 1861 to 1867. He suffered a partial stroke in the mid-1870s and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
on April 26, 1881. He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
, Cambridge.
Family
In March 1823, Palfrey married one of his parishioners, Mary Ann Hammond (1800–1897). Their children were Sarah Hammond (1823–1914), a novelist and poet; Hannah (1825); Francis WinthropFrancis Winthrop Palfrey
Francis Winthrop Palfrey was an American historian, born in Boston, Massachusetts son of J. G. Palfrey. He graduated at Harvard in 1851 and at the Law School two years afterward. During the Civil War he rose to the rank of colonel...
(1831), historian of the Civil War; and John Carver (1833–1906), a military engineer in the Civil War and a textile manufacturer.
External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_G._Palfrey&action=edit§ion=7- Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England (5 vol 1859–90), complete text