Linsley, James H. (James Harvey), 1787-1843

James Harvey Linsley was born in Northford, Connecticut and graduated from Yale College in 1817. He taught in New Haven, New Canaan, and Stratford, Connecticut. In 1831 Linsley was ordained a Baptist minister. Illness curtailed his ministerial duties and he devoted the remainder of his life to the study of natural history.

James Harvey Linsley was born in Northford, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1817. He taught in New Haven, New Canaan, and Stratford, Connecticut. In 1831 Linsley was ordained a Baptist minister. Illness curtailed his ministerial duties and he devoted the remainder of his life to the study of natural history.

James Harvey Linsley, the eldest of ten children of James and Sarah (Maltby) Linsely, of Northford, in (North) Branford, Connecticut, was born on May 5, 1787. His parents were Baptists, and after he had taught for several years he became a member of the church and decided to study for the ministry. He was obliged to teach during much of his College course, to obtain money, and this excessive labor injured permanently his constitution.

After graduation he continued to teach in New Haven, where he was married, on February 1, 1818, to Sophia Brainard, daughter of Colonel William and Lois (Masfield) Lyon.

In May 1818, he took charge of the New Canaan Academy, which he left in April, 1821, to establish a boarding school for boys in Stratford, which was thenceforth his home.

In addition to his teaching, he began in 1828 to preach as he had opportunity, though not regularly licensed until January 1831; and on desiring to undertake stated ministerial work, he was ordained as an Evangelist on June 9, in Meriden, at a meeting of the Baptist State Convention.

At the same time he gave up his school to devote himself wholly to his new duties.

For nearly five years he was exclusively occupied with preaching, having also the pastoral care of two Baptist socities which he had gathered, in Milford (1832) and Bridgeport (1835).

Early in 1836 the constant exertion of his voice brought on an alarming attack of bronchitis, which forbade further public speaking.

He then had leisure to indulge his enthusiasm for natural history, and in his remaining years he gave himself with all his wonted energy and perseverance to the preparation of exhaustive catalogues of the birds, mammals, reptiles, fishes, and shells collected by himself in Connecticut.

Meantime his health was precarious, and after a brief final lillness he died at his home in Stratford, on December 26, 1843, in his 57th year.

His widow died in Stratford on January 31, 1866, in her 84th year. Their children were two daughters, the younger of whom married the Rev. Dr. Sylvanus Dryden Phelps (Brown Univ. 1844).

F.B. Dexter, Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College, pp. 21f