John Pierpont (1785 - 1866)

Born 6 Apr 1785 in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Sheldon (Lord) Pierpont — married 23 Sep 1810 in Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA

Descendants

Died 27 Aug 1866 at age 81 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Ronald Pierpoint [send private message]

Biography

John Pierpont: Morris Academy, Yale, Class of 1804, Litchfield Law School, Distinguished Pastor Unitarian Church Boston, MA 1819-1845.^[1][2]

John Pierpont: Lawyer, Merchant, Clergyman; 1819-1845 Congregational Church, Boston, MA; 1861 Chaplain. Of Boston, Troy, NY, Medford, MA. Yale 1804, Poet, etc.; Airs of Palestine and other poems. (Ruth Pierpont Gray has an original edition of 'Anti-Slavery Poems' circa 1843) Abolitionist and Temperance reformer.

Settled in Newburyport, MA as a lawyer. " Abandoning the legal profession, he entered the ministry of the Unitarian denomination, and was for many years Pastor of the Hollis-street Church, Boston." Residing in Medford, MA 1859.^[3]

The following is a description of a pamphlet by Henry Ware about John Pierpont

59. WARE, HENRY. "http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookDetails?bi=83192639"

John Pierpont, to the Pastoral Charge of the Church in Hollis Street. By Henry Ware, D.D. Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard University. Cambridge, Printed by Hilliard and Metcalf. 1819. Octavo.[ Pamphlet in original plain blue wrapper--tattered along edges of front cover and spine, two small binder holes in margins, untrimmed page edges, light foxing. 24pp. Amer. Bibliog. #50036 [MWA only] First Edition. Henry Ware (1764-1845)

One of the founders of Unitarianism in America, was Hollis professor of divinity in Harvard College, 1805-16 and in the divinity school until 1840. "His significance historically, altogether apart from his own pleasing personality and scholarly attainments, lies in the fact that his election to the chair of divinity evoked a controversy which led to the separation of Unitarians from Congregationalists. His election was opposed on the ground of his `liberal' leanings, but the opposition was unsuccessful."--New Schaff-Herzog Ency. Rel. Knowl. XII:272. Sermon on 2 Cor. v.18 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." . Bookseller Inventory # 13696

Price: US$ 30.00 "http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/CE?v=US$+30.00&s=US$"

Presented by Stroud Booksellers, ABAA, Williamsburg, WV, U.S.A.

From Rhoda Cowles diary, vol. 11, Morris, CT Library - " a Unitarian clergyman, settled over Hollis St. Church, Boston, a quaint, eloquent speaker, etc., born in South Farms, by the 'babbling brook' which he so often quoted in his poetic effusions."

Find additional information in the paper files, specifically, THE LURE OF THE LITCHFIELD HILLS Vol.XXX, no.2 Fall-Winter 1970 article about John Pierpont.

He was the author of The National Reader, Charles Bowen publisher, Boston 1836.

His wife, Mary Sheldon Lord was his 4th cousin. Mary Pierpont Barnum

Name

Rev. John Pierpont

Birth

06 APR 1785 Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut (Barbour Collection)

Marriage

23 SEP 1810 Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut (Barbour Collection)

Residence

1850 Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts (1850 Census)

1860 Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts (1860 Census)

Death

27 AUG 1866 Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Woodruff)

Burial

First buried in Medford, Mass. Moved to Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Barnum)

Anti-Slavery Publications

• The Anti-slavery Poems of John Pierpont
• https://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/BAD1996.0001.001?view=toc
• https://archive.org/details/ASPC0001853000
• https://archive.org/details/antislaverypoems00pier
• https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A"Pierpont%2C+John"

Sources

• Probate File Papers, 1648-1871, Middlesex County, MA. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB536/i/14478/39454-co1/0
• The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55. 1994-2002. - White, Lorraine Cook, ed. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002. Vol: Litchfield, Page 175: Pierpoint/Peirpoint:

• "John, S. James & Elizabeth, b.April 6, 1785 Vol. 2, Page 144."
• "John, m. Mary L. Lord, Sept. 23, 1810 by Rev. Lyman Beecher Vol. 2, Page 16."

• Croffut, William. The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, 3rd edition (Ledyard Bill, New York, 1869) Page 76:

• "Rev. John Pierpont, ...also caught the war-impulse; and, at the age of seventy-six, marched into Virginia as chaplain of the Massachusetts Twenty-second."
• "He graduated at the age of nineteen, studied law at Litchfield, practiced a short time, and had a brief mercantile career. In 1816, he published at Baltimore the Airs of Palestine, a poem in heroic measure, which attracted much attention. He then studied theology, and was ordained in Boston, in 1819, as a Unitarian pastor. His activity and zeal for the temperance, antislavery, and other reforms, brought him into a sharp and prolonged controversy with some of his parishioners, in which he was completely triumphant. For fifty years freedom and temperance were the burden of his song. In 1861, he went with Massachusetts troops to the field, but was rescued by Senator Wilson from fatal exposure, and served in the treasury department until 1864, when he resigned, and went home to a peaceful death."

• Proceedings of the Bostonian Society (The Society, Old State House, Boston, 1886) "Annual Meeting, January 12, 1886", Page 20 See footnote.
• Barnum, Mary Pierpont. Pierpont Genealogy and Connecting Lines (Boston, 1928) Page 10.

• Page 4-5: In 1805 "he went to Charlestown, S. C. as tutor in the family of Col. Allston, the son-in-law of Aaron Burr. In 1811 he was admitted to the Bar." "1810...married by Rev. Lyman Beecher" "lived in Litchfield for a few years. Afterwards he lived at Newburyport, Mass., where, in 1812. he wrote "The Patriot", soon after the mob in Baltimore had destroyed the office of "The Federal Republican" and murdered General Lingan."

• Moffat, R. Burnham. Pierrepont Genealogies from Norman times to 1913 (L. Middleditch Company, 1913)
• 1850 United States Federal Census, Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_323; Page: 425A; Image: 199
• 1860 United States Federal Census Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M653_506; Page: 87; Image: 88; Family History Library Film:/ 803506
• Woodruff, George C. A Genealogical Register of the Inhabitants of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut, (The Case Lockwood & Brainard Company, Hartford, Conn., 1845) Page 134, Page 177
• White, Alain Campbell. The History of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 (Enquirer Print., Litchfield, Conn., 1920) Page 183, Page 187, Page 194
• Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook) Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
• Kilbourne, Payne Kenyon. Sketches and Chronicles of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut (Case, Lockwood and Co., Hartford, 1859) Page 196.
• Kilbourne, Payne Kenyon. Biographical History of the County of Litchfield, Connecticut (Clark, Austin & Co., New York, 1851) Page 283-8
• Hollis Street Church (Boston, Mass.). Records, 1787-1879 (bMS 5): Register, Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University
• Documents of the Hollis Street Society, 1838 (Hollis Street Church, Boston, Mass., 1838)
• https://hymnary.org/person/Pierpont_J
• Doherty, Frank J., The Settlers of the Beekman Patent (1990) Vol. 3, Page 208
• Kilbourn, Dwight. The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 (The Author, Litchfield, Conn., 1909) Page 272
• Calhoun, Newell Meeker. Litchfield County Sketches (Litchfield County University Club, Norfolk, Conn., 1906) Page 139
• Sprague, William Buell. Annals of the American Pulpit (Robert Carter & Brothers, New York, 1857) Vol. 1, Page 382: See letter written by Rev. John Pierpont.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #36201253
• Contributions of The Lowell Historical Society (Lowell, Mass., 1907) Vol. 1, Page 223

• John Pierpont, the poet pastor of the Hollis Street church in Boston; (... the grandfather of J. Pierpont Morgan). Pierpont also published a spelling book, and the "Young Reader"... to go with the spelling book...

• Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, Conn., 1870) Page 227-8.
• The Ledger (Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Connecticut, 2010) #2004. Clerk of the U.S. Treasury Department 1861-1866

Footnotes

1. ↑ Hollis Street Church
2. ↑ Eleanor Coda, owner of Peter Buell and Avis Collins house in Litchfield, CT.
3. ↑ Kilbourne (1851)