Samuel Putnam Bancroft (July 19, 1846 - October 11, 1929), also known as Samuel P. Bancroft, was an American

Christian Scientist Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

and an early student of

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning s ...

Biography

As a young man Bancroft, who went by Putney, worked as a shoe operative for ''Bancroft & Purington'' in

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

.Kennedy, Hugh A. Studdert. (1931). ''Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her: Being Some Contemporary Portraits of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science''. The Farallon Press. pp. 168-172 The factory was part-owned by his uncle Thomas Frederick Bancroft. In 1870 he became interested in Christian Science after hearing about it from Daniel Spofford, another early student of

's, and he then studied under Eddy herself. His uncle, a deacon of the First

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

, was not supportive of his association with Eddy and once commented "My boy, you will be ruined for life; it is the work of the devil." For a short period, Bancroft tried unsuccessfully to establish his own practice in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

during 1874-1875. Bancroft advertised himself as a "Scientific Physician, Gives no Medicine." Bancroft was generally loyal to Eddy, but she had to warn him against idolizing her, telling him not to "make a

Dagon Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...

of me" referring to the idol in

1 Samuel 5 1 Samuel 5 is the fifth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, wi ...

in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. Bancroft helped Eddy organize the Christian Science Association in 1876 and the

Massachusetts Metaphysical College The Massachusetts Metaphysical College was founded in 1881 by Mary Baker Eddy in Boston, Massachusetts, to teach her school of Christian Science metaphysical healing that she named Christian Science. Eddy records in the preface of '' Science and He ...

in 1881. He wrote of Eddy, " heshowed to her early pupils the loving-kindness of a mother, or the faithful devotion of a sister." However, he eventually became inactive in the Christian Science movement. In 1923, Bancroft wrote and privately published the book ''Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870''. The book was never officially endorsed by the church, but is still read by some Christian Scientists today, and is sold independently. There have been some claims that it was suppressed; however, the

Mary Baker Eddy Library The Mary Baker Eddy Library is a research library, museum, and repository for the papers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. The library is located on the Christian Science Center, Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, a ...

, which is owned by the church, calls it "one of the most important reminiscences of Eddy's early years as a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science."

Publications

*''Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870'' (Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Press, 1923)

References

External links

Samuel Putnam Bancroft
Mary Baker Eddy Papers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bancroft, Samuel Putnam 1846 births 1929 deaths American biographers American Christian Scientists Christian Science writers