Clapp, Joel, Dd

Clapp, Joel, D.D.

an eminent minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born at Montgomery, Vermont, September 4, 1793. His father, captain Joshua Clapp, was one of two brothers, both of whom served through the war of the Revolution. The father moved from Worcester County, Massachusetts, to Montgomery, Vermont, and for two years his family was the only one in town, Joel being the first child born there. In 1810 he entered the University of Vermont, at Burlington, but the death of his father in the fall of 1811 compelled him to leave. After being admitted to practice law he relinquished it and studied theology. In 1818 he was ordained deacon, and priest in the following year. Soon after his ordination he organized three parishes in Montgomery, Berkshire, and Shelburne, and became rector of Trinity Church, in the last named, October 27, 1819. For eight years he devoted himself to this parish, performing, in addition, a vast amount of missionary work. In 1828 he resigned his charge in Shelburne, and officiated alternately at Bethel and Woodstock. In 1832 he accepted a call to Gardiner, Maine, remaining eight years, and during that period was delegate from that diocese to the General Convention. In 1840 he was again rector of the Church in Woodstock, and in 1848 became pastor at Bellows Falls. He removed, in 1858, to the diocese of New York, and was instituted rector of St. Philip's, Philipstown. Having accepted the post of chaplain and superintendent of the Home for the Aged and Orphans, at Brooklyn, in January 1860, his health proved unequal to its duties, and he withdrew to the rectorship of the parishes of Montgomery and Berkshire, Vermont, a short time before his death, which occurred at Claremont, N.H., February 24, 1861. Dr. Clapp represented the diocese in seven sessions of the General Convention; was thirteen years secretary of the Diocesan Convention; seven years president of the Standing Committee, and in 1848 was appointed one of the Board of Agents for the management of its lands in Vermont by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. His mental endowments were rather solid than brilliant; he was a man of extraordinary candor, was a most judicious counsellor. See Amer. Quar. Church Rev. 1861, page 386.