Samuel Williams (April 23, 1743 – January 2, 1817) was an American minister and educator.

Early life and education

Born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

, Williams entered

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and graduated in 1761. While at Harvard, he gained the attention of notable scientist and professor John Winhrop, whom Williams accompanied shortly before his graduation to observe the 1761

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a trans ...

. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1772. Returning to Waltham, Williams found little opportunity for further work in astronomy and began studying as a presbyterian minister.

Career

Working as a priest in

Bradford, Massachusetts Bradford is a village and former town, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Eastern Bradford is the current town of Groveland, while western Bradford was annexed by the city of Haverhill, and today consists of the part of Haverhill o ...

, he continued his astronomic and scientific inquiries and regularly featured in the Salem newspaper. In 1780 he dedicated himself full time to scientific pursuits, trading his pastorate in Bradford for a post as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard. His teaching was commemorated by the likes of John Quincy Adams, a pupil of his, and his papers were published by the APS and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Like many of his contemporaries, his writing and lectures spanned various fields and topics, ranging from astronomy, heat, electricity, air, magnetism, earthquakes, eclipses, and weather phenomenon. He earned honorary LL.D. degrees from Yale and Edinburgh, and election to the Meteorological Society of Manheim. Despite such high honors, Williams’ career came crashing down when he was accused of mishandling funds, spending too much money on his wife, and worst of all, forgery. This caused him to leave Harvard in 1788, and, now an outcast, he resigned to the village of Rutland in Vermont. He took up priestly duties once again, only returning to academia to give lectures at the University of Vermont. Meanwhile, he also founded and edited the Rutland Herald, continued his activity with the APS, published his sermons, and documented the landscape and history of Vermont.

Death

He died of a brief illness in his home in

Rutland, Vermont Rutland, Vermont may refer to: *Rutland (city), Vermont * Rutland (town), Vermont *Rutland County, Vermont *West Rutland, Vermont West Rutland is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,214 at the 2020 census. The t ...

. He is buried at the North Main Street Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Samuel 1743 births 1817 deaths American astronomers Members of the American Philosophical Society Transit of Venus Harvard University alumni