Bostwick, Gideon

Bostwick, Gideon a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born at New Milford, Conn., Sept. 21, 1742 (O. S.). Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, the Congregational minister of his native town, gave him his preparation for college, and he graduated at Yale in 1762. Great Barrington, Conn., became his permanent residence in consequence of his accepting the charge of a classical school recently established there. For some time he officiated as lay reader in the Episcopal Church at that place, and this ultimately led him to become a candidate for orders. He repaired to England, and was ordained deacon and priest by the bishop of London, and returned in 1770 to Connecticut. In June he became rector of St. James's Church, Great Barrington,, which position he occupied until the end of his life, June 13, 1793. St. Luke's Church in Lanesborough was also under his supervision during the same period. A few years before his death he preached a part of the time 'in a church' at Hudson, N. Y., in connection with his rectorship at Great Barrington. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5, 274.