Stanton, Benjamin Franklin

Stanton, Benjamin Franklin a Presbyterian minister, was born at Stonington, Conn., Feb. 12, 1789. He graduated at Union College in 1811; studied theology for some months under the distinguished Hebrew scholar the Rev. Dr. Banks, and afterwards graduated in Princeton Theological Seminary, 1815; was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in April, 1815; ordained and installed pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hudson, N.Y., Nov. 12 of the same year; resigned on account of ill health, April 20, 1824; in 1825 became pastor of the Congregational Church in Bethlehem, Conn. In 1829, owing to continued and increasing ill health, he again resigned his pastoral charge, removed to Virginia, and preached to the Hanover Church until 1842. After the death of Rev. John H. Rice, D.D., professor in the Union Theological Seminary, he delivered a course of lectures on theology to the students; and afterwards, during a vacancy in the presidency of Hampden Sidney College, he delivered lectures to the senior class. He died Nov. 18, 1843. Mr. Stanton was a close thinker, an impressive preacher, and a vigorous writer. He published, The Apostolic Commission (1827, 8vo), a sermon: A Sermon on the National Fast (1841), occasioned by the death of general Harrison: — Selections from his Manuscript Sermons, with Preface by the Rev. P.D. Oakley (1848). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 4, 524; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v. (J.L.S.)