William Henry Furness (April 20, 1802 – January 30, 1896) was an American clergyman, theologian, Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer.

Biography

Furness was born in Boston, where he attended the

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...

and developed a lifelong friendship with schoolmate

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1823. He preached in Watertown and Boston, Massachusetts and in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1823. At the age of 22 he became the minister of the

First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia The First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia is a Unitarian Universalist congregation located at 2125 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a regional Community Center it sponsors cultural, educational, civic, wellness and spiritual a ...

, which had operated without a minister for 29 years. He served there from 1825 until his retirement in 1875. The congregation grew substantially during his ministry, moving to a larger building in 1828 and an even larger building in 1886, which was designed by his son

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...

. Furness was an ardent abolitionist whose attacks on the

Fugitive Slave Act A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also kno ...

led to a discussion at a cabinet meeting of President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

about the possibility of indicting him for treason. He was a prominent speaker at the Martyr Day vigil in Philadelphia in 1859, which marked the execution of

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

, who had attempted to spark a slave uprising in the South. After abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was severely beaten on the floor of the Senate by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina, he stayed at the Furness home during part of his convalescence. In 1840, he was elected 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 ...

. Furness was a student of the life of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, about whom he published several books. He asserted that the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Christian Bible were natural events with rational explanations. He rejected traditional beliefs about Jesus' miraculous birth, saying, "these stories may have been pure fictions ... rthey were exaggerations of certain simple and very natural incidents, magnified by wonder." He was a hymnwriter and published numerous popular hymns. Furness promoted outreach to the Jewish community in Philadelphia. His son Frank was the architect for the new building for Congregation Rodeph Shalom. He married Annis P. Jenks of Salem, Massachusetts in 1825. They had four children: William Henry Furness, Jr., a portrait painter;

Horace Howard Furness Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century. Life and career Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...

, a Shakespeare scholar;

, one of Philadelphia's most prominent architects; and Annis Lee Furness Wister, an author and translator. William Henry Furness grave

He died on January 30, 1896 and was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia.

Selected works

* ''Notes on the Four Gospels'' (1836) * ''Jesus and His Biographers'' (1838) *
Domestic Worship
', James Kay, Jun. & Brother, Philadelphia (1840) *
Schiller's Song of the Bell, a New Translation by W.H. Furness
' (1851) *
The History of Jesus
' (1853) * ''Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth'' (1859) * ''The Blessings of Abolition'' (1860) * ''The Veil Partly Lifted'' (1864) * ''The Voice in Speaking'', J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1875) * ''The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth'', J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1877) *
Jesus, the Heart of Christianity
(1882) *
The Story of the Resurrection of Christ Told Once More
(1885) * ''Verses, Translations and Hymns'' (1886) *
The Life of Seth Conkling
', Philadelphia (1892) File:Views in Philadelphia and its vicinity - engraved from original drawings (1827) (14765859372).jpg, 2nd building: First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia File:Undergroundrailr00lcstil 0712 Furness.jpg, Rev. William H. Furness, from William Still, ''The Underground Railroad'' (1872). File:First Unitarian Church in 1886.jpg, 3rd building: First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (1885–86).

Citations

Sources

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, William Henry 1802 births 1896 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American theologians Activists from Philadelphia American abolitionists American Christian hymnwriters American Unitarians Boston Latin School alumni Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Clergy from Boston Furness family Harvard Divinity School alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society