Joseph Grafton
Orders
OrdinationJune 18, 1788
by Isaac Backus and Samuel Stillman
Personal details
BornJune 9, 1757
Newport, Colony of Rhode Island
DiedDecember 16, 1836(1836-12-16) (aged 79)
Boston, Massachusetts
2nd Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton
In office
1788–1836
Preceded byRev. Caleb Blood
Succeeded byRev. Frederic Augustus Willard

Joseph Grafton (June 9, 1757 – December 16, 1836)[1] was a founder of the Newton Theological Institution.[2] For more than forty-eight years he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frederic Augustus Willard. As the minister of a member church of the (Baptist) Warren Association, Grafton served on committees to advise individuals and churches who were taxed in order to pay the town-supported Congregational minister's salary. He also served as a messenger to associations in other states such as Connecticut and Maine.[3]

In September 1793, members of the Warren Association elected Joseph Grafton as one of twelve founding Trustees of the Baptist Education Fund. The purpose of the fund was to help young men pay for tuition to colleges such as Rhode Island College (Brown University).[4]

Upon his death, the Rev. Daniel Sharp preached a funeral sermon. Grafton's biography, written by Samuel Francis Smith, was published in Boston in 1849.[5]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Sprague, William B. (1860). Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, from the Early Settlement of the Country to the Close of the Year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Five with Historical Introductions. Vol. VI. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. pp. 221–228.
  2. ↑ Hovey, Alvah, Historical Address Delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Newton Theological Institution, June 8, 1875 (Boston, 1875), p. 6.
  3. ↑ Warren Association Minutes, 1791, p. 9; 1792, p. 9; 1793, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Warren Association Minutes, 1792, pp. 6-7.
  5. ↑ Smith, S. F. (1849). Life of the Rev. Joseph Grafton, Late Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Newton, MS. with an Appendix, Embracing Historical, Statistical, and Ecclesiastical Information Pertaining to the Town of Newton. Boston: John Putnam – via Google Books.


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