Collier, William

Collier, William a Baptist minister, was born in Scituate, Mass., Oct. 11, 1771. He graduated at Brown University in 1797, studied theology under president Maxcy, and was licensed to preach in 1798. In 1799 he was ordained at Boston as minister at large, but soon went as pastor to Newport, spent one year there, and four as pastor of the First Baptist Church, New York. In 1804 he became pastor of the Baptist church in Charlestown, Mass., where he remained sixteen years, a faithful and successful minister. In 1820, his health failing, he resigned his charge, and removed to Boston, where he remained during the rest of his life, doing service as minister at large. He was a pioneer of the temperance reform, and from 1826 to 1828 edited the National Philanthropist, the first temperance paper. He died March 19, 1843. Among his literary labors were a Hymn-book, a series of Sermons from living Ministers (begun in 1827), editions of Saurin and of Andrew Fuller, and several occasional Sermons. — Sprague, Annals, 6:376.