Damon, David, 1787-1843

David Damon (1788-1843, A.B. 1811) was a Unitarian minister who served various parishes in New England until becoming pastor of the West Cambridge Unitarian Church (now the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington) from 1835-1843.

David Damon (1788-1843) was a Unitarian minister who was pastor of a church in Lunenburg, Massachusetts from 1815-1827, and pastor of the West Cambridge Unitarian Church (now the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington) from 1835-1843. In 1841, he gave the Dudleian lecture at Harvard University.

David Damon was born in East Sudbury (now Wayland), Massachusetts, on September 12, 1787, to farmer Aaron Damon and Rachel Griffin Damon. He studied at the Andover Phillips Academy in 1806 and 1807, and graduated from Harvard in 1811. He was ordained on November 22, 1813, and served as pastor for the Congregational Church and Society in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, between February 1815 and December 1827. Damon then became pastor of the Congregational Church and Society of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, on June 25, 1828. He left his position on May 14, 1833, and temporarily preached in several different Massachusetts towns. Damon accepted a call from a congregation in West Cambridge in April 1835, and held a position there until his death in June 1843. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Harvard shortly before he died. He married Rebecca (alternately spelled Rebekah or Rebeccah) Derby of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1815, and they had seven children.