Bentley, William, 1759-1819

Epithet: Printer

Bentley (Harvard, Class of 1777) was tutor at Harvard.

Massachusetts resident (Essex County) and Unitarian clergyman.

Congregational minister.

William Bentley was born in Boston on June 22, 1759. At fourteen years of age Bentley went to Cambridge and entered Harvard College where he graduated with distinction as a member of the class of 1777. After graduation he spent a few years as a school-master serving at the Boston Latin School and preceptor of the North Grammar School, also in Boston. Bentley then returned to Harvard, as a Latin and Greek tutor where he remained until 1783, when he received a call to the ministry. This call came from the East Church (Congregational) in Salem, Massachusetts. The East Society tendered Bentley the offer of a joint-pastorate with the Reverend James Diman. Upon meeting the requirements, Bentley was ordained on September 24, 1783. While principally a man of religion Bentley also established himself in secular affairs in Salem. He took a great interest in political, commercial and social events of his town, his nation and the world. Bentley remained a serious scholar all his life. He numbered among his correspondents some of the more prominent contemporary scholars of Europe and America. Bentley's vocation was religion, raised in the stricter doctrines of New England Puritanism, he soon found a more liberal brand of theology to his liking. Through study and meditation Bentley found himself becoming more and more a Unitarian. In fact, he became one of the first American ministers to openly declare himself and he pioneered the rise of Unitarianism in Salem. Bentley opened his pulpit to nearly all denominations. In keeping with his Unitarian faith Bentley introduced a more liberal catechism and church music into his congregation.

The Rev. William Bentley (1759-1819) was a Unitarian clergyman, journalist, book collector, and scholar. He graduated from Harvard in 1777 and taught school for three years before returning to Harvard as a tutor of Greek and Latin. He remained at Harvard until he accepted a call to the East Church in Salem, Mass., in September 1783. Bentley remained as pastor of the church until his death.

Bentley was a pioneering Unitarian when New England remained decidedly Calvinist. He was also a notable Jeffersonian Republican and regular contributor to the Salem Register. He was one of America's great linguists, fluent in the European languages and with a reading knowledge of Latin, Greek, Persian, and Arabic, among others. He was an inveterate collector of books and fond of making scientific observations as well as notations on natural phenomena. He was an active Freemason and extensive correspondent. Bentley's diary, covering the years 1785 to 1819, is an invaluable compendium of gossip, shipping news, vital statistics, social and political observations, and petty miscellany, in the period of Salem's prominence as a major commercial center.

William Bentley (1759-1819) was a Unitarian clergyman in Salem, Mass., a journalist, book and coin collector, and scholar. He served as the minister of the East Church in Salem from 1784 until his death in 1819. Bentley served as the minister of the East Church in Salem from 1784 until his death in 1819, and was a prominent presence both in Salem and in the larger intellectual community.

Bentley was born in Boston on June 22, 1759. He received an AB from Harvard in 1777, and upon receiving an AM in 1780, the College appointed him a Latin and Greek tutor. Bentley remained a tutor until his ordination on September 24, 1784 as the minister of the East Church in Salem. In 1794, he began writing a weekly news summary for William Carleton's Salem Gazette . Bentley wrote the column until 1817 and also contributed regularly to the Essex Register and the Essex Gazette. The Reverend knew more than twenty languages and collected a private library of over 4,000 volumes. In 1805, while planning the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson invited Bentley to be its first president, but Bentley declined in order to continue as the minister of the East Church.

Among his many friends, he maintained regular communication with James Winthrop (Harvard AB 1769), a fellow Harvard alumnus and son of Harvard Professor John Winthrop. Winthrop and Bentley visited each other regularly and shared correspondence for over thirty years, and Bentley was aware of Winthrop's reputation as an eccentric. Bentley noted in a diary entry for July 10, 1804 that Winthrop "boasts a theory of life different from mine. He says he intends to purchase every thing with ease, I by labour... Had not my friend betrayed in early life very great excentricity, I should think more kindly of his theory which is rather a convention than a direct conquest, agreed on but not yet signed." Winthrop also corresponded with James Winthrop's brother, William Winthrop (Harvard AB 1770), as part of their mutual efforts to collect the biographical histories of Harvard's graduates.

Bentley never married and boarded for more than twenty years with Hannah Crowninshield, daughter of Hannah Carlton and Jacob Crowninshield. Bentley tutored Hannah Crowninshield's niece, Hannah Crowninshield (later Armstrong) (1789-1834), the daughter of Benjamin and Mary Lambert Crowninshield; he also tutored Nathaniel Bowditch (1752-1836) and Andrew Dunlap (1794-1835). Bentley received an honorary AM from Dartmouth in 1787 and a Doctorate of Sacred Theology from Harvard in 1819. Bentley died on December 29, 1819. Bentley bequeathed his manuscripts and books on history and natural science to the American Antiquarian Society, and the rest of his library to Allegheny College.