Burr, Aaron

Burr, Aaron a distinguished Presbyterian divine, and father of the Vice-president of the same name, was born in Fairfield, Conn., Jan. 4, 1716, graduated at Yale College in 1735, and received license to preach in the following year. Having labored eleven years in Hanover and Newark, he became president of the College of New Jersey in 1747. He discharged the duties of both president and pastor until 1755, when the pastoral relation was dissolved, and he gave his whole time to the service of the college. In 1752 he married a daughter of Jonathan Edwards, who survived him about a year. He died Sept. 24, 1757. Mr. Burr entered warmly into the great revival that took place in the early part of his ministry, and was in intimate relations with Whitefield, the Tennents, and many other promoters of the work. He was the author of a "Latin Grammar" and of several pamphlets. — Sprague, Annals, 3, 68.