Samuel Stillman

Samuel Stillman was born on February 27 [O.S.], 1737 in Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania. In 1748, the Stillman family moved to Charleston, Province of South Carolina. Stillman's inclination for the ministry was recognized by Oliver Hart of the First Baptist Church of Charleston. Hart converted and baptized Stillman in 1754 and immediately began training him for ministerial service.{{Cite book|last1=Baker|first1=Robert Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ik_kAAAAMAAJ|title=Adventure in Faith: The First 300 Years of First Baptist Church, Charleston, South Carolina|last2=Craven|first2=Paul J.|date=1982|publisher=Broadman Press|isbn=978-0-8054-6563-1|language=en}} Stillman preached his first sermon on February 17, 1758, and was ordained on February 26, 1759.

After ordination, Stillman accepted a pastoral position on James Island. On a visit to his native Philadelphia, Stillman married Hannah Morgan—the daughter of a Welsh merchant family and sister of noted physician John Morgan. During his visit to Philadelphia, Stillman was awarded an honorary Master of Arts from the then recently-founded College of Philadelphia. In 1761, he received another honorary Master of Arts from Harvard University.{{Cite book|last=Sprague|first=William Buell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0h47AAAAIAAJ&q=samuel+stillman+born+philadelphia+tour|title=Annals of the American Pulpit: Baptist|date=1860|publisher=R. Carter|pages=72|language=en}}

File:Hannah_Morgan_Stillman_circa_1789.jpg

In 1764, Stillman joined the Reverend James Manning, the Reverend Ezra Stiles, the Reverend Isaac Backus, the Reverend John Gano, the Reverend Morgan Edwards, William Ellery, and former Royal Governors Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward among thirty-five others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University).{{Cite web |url=http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Corporation/downloads/charter-of-brown-university.pdf |date=1945 |title=The Charter of Brown University|access-date=2009-05-25 |archive-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716044353/http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Corporation/downloads/charter-of-brown-university.pdf |url-status=dead }} Stillman received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Brown in 1788.

In 1765 Stillman became minister of the Brattle Square Church of Boston—a position he held until his death. In 1773, Stillman purchased a house at the northern corner of Sheaffe and Salem Streets in Boston's North End. The house stood immediately opposite of that of Robert Newman, a patriot and sexton of Old North Church, known for lighting the churchs' steeple during the Battles of Lexington and Concord.{{Cite book|last=Drake|first=Samuel Adams|url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AFJ7482.0001.001|title=Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.: By Samuel Adams Drake.|date=2005}}{{Cite book|last=Thwing|first=Annie Haven|url=http://archive.org/details/crookednarrowstr20thwi|title=The crooked & narrow streets of the town of Boston 1630-1822|date=1920|publisher=Boston, Marshall Jones Company|others=Boston University Mugar Memorial Library}} Robert Newman also served as Sexton of the First Baptist Church of Boston (church record.)

John Hancock, although a Unitarian, was one of his admirers and often rented a pew there so that he could hear him. President John Adams and General Henry Knox also came to hear him preach.[http://www.firstbaptistchurchofboston.org/history/history.html History of the First Baptist Church of Boston]

Stillman died on March 11 or 12 1807, after suffering a fatal paralysis. He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground, at the edge of Beacon Hill.

He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and was politically active as a member of the 1779 Massachusetts Senate Convention for the formation of the State constitution; and also for the 1788 adoption of the United States Constitution. According to editor Frank Moore, Stillman was "a member of the Senate Convention for the formation of the state constitution in 1779; as also for the adoption of the federal constitution in 1788; in the last body he delivered a very eloquent speech in its support, and was considered at the time as having contributed much toward its adoption, and confirmed many members in its favor who were previously wavering upon that question. To that constitution he ever after continued a firm, unshaken friend, and a warm approver of the administration of Washington and Adams."[http://www.belcherfoundation.org/duty_of_magistrates.htm The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution, with Biographical Sketches, 1766-1783]

In 1802, Samuel Stillman was instrumental in founding the first Baptist Missionary Society in America (now known as The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts).{{Portal|Christianity|Philadelphia|Pennsylvania}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book| title = Four Sermons

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1769

| publisher = E. Russell | location = Boston

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hxtdAAAAcAAJ

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = The Substance of a Sermon [on Acts Xiii. 2] Preached at the Ordination of Rev. S. Shepard at Stratham, September 25, 1771

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1772

| publisher = Kneeland | location = Boston

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lBtdAAAAcAAJ

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = Two sermons: the first from Psalm cii. 19, 20, delivered the Lord's Day before the execution of L. Ames ... the second from Proverbs xvii. 25 preached the Lord's Day after his execution ... To which is added an account of the exercise of his mind

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1773

| publisher = E. Russell | location = Boston

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pj1hSlBq374C

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite web| title = Apostolic preaching considered in three discourses, delivered November, 1790

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1791

| publisher = B. Edes & Son | location = Boston

| url = https://archive.org/details/MN41956ucmf_4/page/n1 | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = Thoughts on the French Revolution. A sermon [on Matt. xxiv. 6-8], delivered November 20, 1794

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1795

| publisher = Manning & Loring | location = Boston

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8rVha62Ko7IC

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite web| title = Sacred performances at the dedication of the Baptist Meeting-House in Charlestown, May 12, 1801: consisting of an Introductory address by Jedidiah Morse, D.D.; a Sermon, adapted to the occasion, by Samuel Stillman, D.D.; and an Address on the recognition of the Church, by Thomas Baldwin, A.M

| author = Samuel Stillman

| publisher = Manning & Loring | location = Boston

| year = 1801

| url = https://archive.org/details/sacredper00firs/page/n2 | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite web| title = Discourse delivered before the members of the Boston female asylum, Friday, Sept. 25, 1801

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1801

| publisher = Russell & Cutler | location = Boston

| url = https://archive.org/details/discoursedelive00stil/page/n9 | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = A sermon [on Luke v. 10] preached at Charlestown at the instalment of J. Waterman, to the pastoral care of the Baptist Church in that town

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1802

| publisher = Manning & Loring | location = Boston

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WRpdAAAAcAAJ

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite web| title = Discourse, preached in Boston, before the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, May 25, 1803, being their first anniversary

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1803

| publisher = Manning & Loring | location = Boston

| url = https://archive.org/details/discoursepreache00stil | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = Select sermons on doctrinal and practical subjects

| author = Samuel Stillman | year = 1808

| publisher = Manning & Loring | location = Boston

| url = https://archive.org/details/selectsermonson01stilgoog | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}}

• {{cite book| title = The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution: With Biographical Sketches

| author = Frank Moore | year = 1862

| orig-year = First published 1860

| publisher = C.T. Evans | location = New York

| url = https://archive.org/details/patriotpreacher00moorgoog | via = Internet Archive

| ref = none

}} pages 258–288, also: {{isbn|978-0-7661-5468-1}}

{{refend}}

• [https://csac.history.wisc.edu/themes-of-the-ratification-period/religion-and-the-ratification/individual-clergyman/ Individual Clergymen and Denominational Assessments of the Constitution]
• [http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Corporation/downloads/charter-of-brown-university.pdf Brown University Charter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716044353/http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Corporation/downloads/charter-of-brown-university.pdf |date=2011-07-16 }}
• [http://www.firstbaptistchurchofboston.org/history/history.html History of the First Baptist Church of Boston]
• [http://library.furman.edu/specialcollections/baptist_resources/baptist_biographies.htm#r Furman University's Special Collection on Baptists]
• [http://www.baylor.edu/baylorpress/excerpt/105-excerpt.pdf Baptist Identity and Christian Higher Education, monograph by Donald D. Schmeltekopf and Dianna M. Vitanza]

{{Christian History|state=collapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stilman, Samuel}}

Category:1737 births

Category:1807 deaths

Category:18th-century Baptist ministers from the United States

Category:American evangelicals

Category:Brown University people

Category:Clergy from Philadelphia

Category:Clergy in the American Revolution

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Patriots in the American Revolution

Category:People from colonial Massachusetts

Category:University and college founders