Skinner, Ezekiel

Skinner, Ezekiel, a Baptist preacher, was born in Glastenbury, Conn., June 27, 1777. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith, but bought the last year of his apprenticeship and studied medicine. He received his license to practice medicine in 1801, and settled at Granville, Mass. Here he professed religion and united with the Congregational Church; but afterwards adopting the views of the Baptists, he was immersed and joined the Baptist Church in Lebanon. He enlisted, in the army in the war of 1812; but was discharged in a few months on account of the failure of his health, and removed to Stafford, Conn. While there he began to preach, and was licensed in 1819 by the Baptist Church in that place. In 1822 he was ordained pastor of the church in Ashford, where he officiated nine years; and also pastor at Westford, where he officiated seventeen years, including a period of four years which were spent in the service of the Colonization Society. In the summer of 1834 he went to Liberia, and rendered important services to that colony. On his final return in 1837, he resumed his pastoral relations with his former charge, which he resigned in April, 1855, and went to reside with his son (Dr. E.D. Skinner, Greenport, L.I.), where he died, Dec. 25, 1855. Mr. Skinner published a series of articles On the Prophecies, in the Christian Secretary (1842). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6, 694.