Stone, Samuel

Stone, Samuel, a Congregational minister, was born at Hertford, England, and was educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge. He then studied divinity under the instruction of Rev. Richard Blackerby. Being a Nonconformist, he resolved to seek the more congenial atmosphere of New England, and arrived in America Sept. 4, 1633. On Oct. 11 following a Church was organized at Newtown, Conn., of which he was ordained teacher, Mr. Hooker being ordained pastor. In June 1636, nearly the whole Church, including pastor and teacher, removed to Hartford, where Mr. Stone labored with Mr. Hooker for fourteen years, and then became sole pastor. This position he retained until his death, July 26, 1663. The latter part of his ministry was embittered by a violent controversy in the Church, originating in a dispute on some ecclesiastical topic between himself and a Mr. Goodwin, a ruling elder. The origin of the misunderstanding is unknown. Mr. Stone published a Discourse on the Logical Notions of a Congregational Church (Lond. 1652); and left in MS. a work against Antinomianism, and a body of divinity. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 1, 37.