West, Samuel (1), Dd

West, Samuel (1), D.D.

an American Unitarian minister, was born at Yarmouth, Mass.. March 3, 1730 (O. S.). He labored on the farm until he was twenty years of age; graduated at Harvard College in 1754; was ordained minister of a part of Dartmouth (now New Bedford and Fair Haven) June 3, 1761; was a zealous patriot during the American Revolution, encouraging the people in public addresses, entering the army as chaplain, and adding all the weight of his great learning to the American cause; withdrew from his ministerial labors in June, 1803; and died at the house of his son in Tiverton, R. I., Sept. 24, 1807. He was a man of extraordinary physical and mental powers, and was esteemed the most learned man of his time in New England. He was a vigorous preacher, and was noted for the complete mastery of his subject. He was the author of Essays on Liberty and Necessity (1793 and 1795, 2 pts.), and several single Sermons preached on various occasions. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 8:37 sq.