William Augustus Larned
William Augustus Larned [1]
a noted American Congregational theologian and professor, was born in Thompson County, Conn., June 23, 1806. His ancestors had lived in that county for four generations, the first of the family having come over in John Winthrop's colony in 1630. Provided with suitable opportunities for obtaining an education by his father, a lawyer of considerable ability and renown, young Lamed was graduated at Yale College with honor when about twenty years of age. Although religiously trained he was somewhat skeptical in his youth, but, under the preaching of Dr. Fitch while in college, he was powerfully impressed, and in the great revival that occurred soon after his graduation he resolved to be a follower of Christ. After teaching five years, first at Salisbury, North Carolina, and then for three years as tutor in Yale College, he entered upon his theological studies, and was ordained in 1834 pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Millbury, Massachusetts, but was compelled to relinquish this charge-in the following year on account of impaired health. From 1835 to 1839 he was associated, at their request, with Reverend N. S. Beman, D,D., and Reverend Mr. Kirk, in instructing theological students in Troy, N.Y. Soon after finishing his labors in Troy he was appointed professor of rhetoric and English literature in Yale College, a position which he filled with honor and usefulness till his death, February 3, 1862. Professor Larned's literary labors were mostly confined to the New Englander, of which he was editor for two years, and to which he contributed twenty- seven different articles on a variety of topics. As the pastor of a church, as the successor of Dr. Goodrich in the professor's chair, and as a literary man, he acquitted himself with fidelity and success. He was a man simple and unpretending in his tastes and habits, of great purity of character, and of strong faith in Christ as his Savior. See New Englander, 1862, April, art. ix; Appleton, New Am. Cyclop. volume 10, s.v.; Congreg. Quart. 1863; Dr. Theodore Woolsey, Funeral Discourse commemorative of Reverend W.A. Larned (New Haven, 1862, 8vo). (H.A.B.)
