Jared Eliot
Jared Eliot [1]
a Congregational minister, son of Reverend Joseph Eliot, was born at Guilford, Connecticut, November 7, 1685. While Yale College was yet located at Killingworth, he graduated from it in 1706. In October 1709, he was ordained pastor of the Killingworth Church, as successor to the Reverend Mr. Pierson, and retained this position until his death, April 22, 1763. From 1730 to 1762 he was a fellow of Yale College. In 1722, the day after commencement at Yale, a number of prominent men assembled in the college library to consider a paper signed by some of the leading clergymen of Connecticut, among whom was Dr. Eliot, in which doubts regarding the validity of Presbyterian ordination were expressed. In October following, according to arrangement, the divine right of Episcopacy was discussed before a large number of clergy and laity. As the result, some avowed themselves Episcopalians, while Dr. Eliot and others were convinced of the truth of Presbyterianism. It is said of him that he was the chief physician of his time in the colony, being eminent also as a botanist and. as a scientific agriculturist. Through him the white mulberry was -introduced into Connecticut, and with it the silkworm, concerning which he published a treatise. In 1761 he received a gold medal from a society in London for his process of extracting iron from black sand, for he was likewise a mineralogist. His linguistic acquirements were also of a superior order. His agricultural tastes led him to devise various ways for draining swamps and reclaiming marshes, and, he published several essays on agriculture. A large number of farms in the colony belonged to him. So conscientious, however, was he as a clergyman that he neverfomitted preaching on the Sabbath during forty successive years. Benjamin Franklin frequently visited him. and the two maintained a correspondence. Socially he was very agreeable, and among his people he was regarded as a great preacher. A few of his sermons were published. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 1:270.
