Lathrop, Joseph, Dd

Lathrop, Joseph, D.D., an eminent Congregational minister, was born October 20, 1731 (O.S.), at Norwich, Connecticut; graduated at Yale College in 1754; entered the ministry January 1756; was ordained pastor in West Springfield, Massachussets, August 25, and labored there until his death, December 31, 1820. In 1793 he was elected professor of divinity in Yale College, but declined the position. He published A Letter to the Reverend the associated Pastors in the County of New Haven concerning the Ordination of the Reverend John Hubbard in Meriden (1770): Miscellaneous Collection of original Pieces, political, moral, and entertaining (1786); and a number of occasional Sermons (Hartford, 1793, 8vo; 1803, 8vo; Worcester, 1807, 8vo). Doctor Lathrop was a popular preacher, and his sermons have long been highly commented upon both in this country and in Europe. — Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 1:528.