Stennett, Joseph, Sen

Stennett, Joseph, Sen., an English Baptist minister, was born at Abingdon in the year 1663. He showed remarkable intellectual ability in his youth, and made himself proficient in French, Italian, and Hebrew and other Oriental languages by the time he was not far from twenty-one years of age. He was ordained March 4, 1690, and became pastor of a small church in London, with which he was connected till his death. Such was the position he occupied in his denomination that the Baptists selected him to draw up the address which they presented to king William on his deliverance from a plot to assassinate him. He was also one of the committee of the Dissenters who drafted an address to the queen in 1706. It is a proof of the esteem in which he was held by the religious public that an eminent prelate said of him, if Mr. Stennett could be reconciled to the Church, he believed that few preferments in it would be thought above his merit. Mr. Stennett died July 11 1713. His published works consist of a volume of poetry, three volumes of sermons, and some controversial writings, which were somewhat widely circulated in their day. (J.C.S.)