Hale, Benjamin, Dd

Hale, Benjamin, D.D.

a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, was born at Old Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1797. He graduated with honor from Bowdoin College in 1818, and immediately became principal of the Saco Academy. In 1819 he entered the Andover Theological Seminary, and became a minister of the Congregational Church in 1822. The four years thereafter he spent as a tutor in Bowdoin. In 1827 he was called to Dartmouth College, N.H., as a professor, and held the office until 1835, when his professorship was abolished by the trustees of the college. He was ordained deacon in the; Protestant Episcopal Church in 1828, and presbyter in 1831. After his return from a visit to the West Indies, whither he went for recuperation in the summer of 1836, he was elected to the presidency of Hobart College, in Geneva, N.Y. In 1852 he made a brief visit to Europe, and in 1856 resigned the presidency of the college, which he had held for twenty years, and afterwards lived in retirement in his native place. He died at Newburyport, Massachusetts, July 15, 1863. Dr. Hale was the author of several scientific and professional works; but his reputation rests largely upon his work as an instructor. See Amer. Quar. Church Rev. October 1863, page 507.