Joseph Grafton | |
|---|---|
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| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 18, 1788 by Isaac Backus and Samuel Stillman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 9, 1757 |
| Died | December 16, 1836 (aged 79) Boston, Massachusetts |
| 2nd Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton | |
| In office 1788–1836 | |
| Preceded by | Rev. Caleb Blood |
| Succeeded by | Rev. Frederic Augustus Willard |
Joseph Grafton (June 9, 1757 – December 16, 1836)[1] was an American minister, a founder of the Newton Theological Institution.[2] For more than forty-eight years he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frederic Augustus Willard. As the minister of a member church of the (Baptist) Warren Association, Grafton served on committees to advise individuals and churches who were taxed in order to pay the town-supported Congregational minister's salary. He also served as a messenger to associations in other states such as Connecticut and Maine.[3]
In September 1793, members of the Warren Association elected Joseph Grafton as one of twelve founding Trustees of the Baptist Education Fund. The purpose of the fund was to help young men pay for tuition to colleges such as Rhode Island College (Brown University).[4]
Upon his death, the Rev. Daniel Sharp preached a funeral sermon. Grafton's biography, written by Samuel Francis Smith, was published in Boston in 1849.[5]
- ^ Sprague, William B. (1860). Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, from the Early Settlement of the Country to the Close of the Year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Five with Historical Introductions. Vol. VI. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. pp. 221–228.
- ^ Hovey, Alvah, Historical Address Delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Newton Theological Institution, June 8, 1875 (Boston, 1875), p. 6.
- ^ Warren Association Minutes, 1791, p. 9; 1792, p. 9; 1793, p. 7.
- ^ Warren Association Minutes, 1792, pp. 6-7.
- ^ Smith, S. F. (1849). Life of the Rev. Joseph Grafton, Late Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Newton, MS. with an Appendix, Embracing Historical, Statistical, and Ecclesiastical Information Pertaining to the Town of Newton. Boston: John Putnam – via Google Books.