Prime, Ebenezer

Prime, Ebenezer a Presbyterian minister, was born at Milford, Conn., July 21, 1700, graduated at Yale College in 1718, and at the age of nineteen was assistant of the Rev. Eliphalet Jones, pastor at Huntington, L.I., whose colleague he became four years after. He remained in charge of this congregation until his death, Sept. 25, 1779 (according to another account, Oct. 3). For a period of nearly seven years, from 1766 to 1773, he had an assistant, but during the troubled times of the Revolution the whole charge rested with him, and he was even obliged at one time to flee from his dwelling, and live in retirement for a season in a solitary neighborhood of his congregation. He is the progenitor of a family of eminent Presbyterian divines. Mr. Prime published a Discourse on the Nature of Ordination. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 3, 30 sq.