Washburn, Joseph, 1766-1805

Joseph Washburn was born on May 13, 1766, in Middletown, Connecticut. He was prepared for college by the Reverend Enoch Huntington and was the oldest member of his Yale College class. After graduation, he studied for the ministry, again with Huntington. In June, 1794, he was licensed to preach and the following year, he was ordained and installed as pastor of a Farmington, Connecticut church. He was married on August 18, 1795, to Sarah Boardman, with whom he had four children. He died while at sea, traveling south to Charleston, South Carolina, on December 25, 1805.

Joseph Washburn, the son of Joseph and Ruth Washburn, of Middletown, Connecticut, was born in Middletown on May 13, 1766, and baptized five days later. His mother was the youngest daughter of Daniel and Dorothy (Hale) Wetmore, of Middletown.

He did not enter College until May of the Freshman year, when he was 24 years old. His preparation was conducted by his pastor, the Rev. Enoch Huntington (Yale 1759). He had already taught school in the vicinity. He was admitted to the College Church on profession of faith at the close of the Junior year. At graduation he was the oldest member of the Class.

He then studied for the ministry with Mr. Huntington, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association of Ministers in June, 1794.

Four months later he began to supply the vacant church in Farmington, Connecticut, and gave such satisfaction that on May 7, 1795, he was ordained and installed as pastor.

He loved his work and was successful in it, great additions being made to the church during his ministry. But his course was suddenly arrested by pulmonary consumption, brought on, as was supposed, by his incessant labors.

In October, 1805, he left home with his wife to spend the winter in a southern climate. While on their passage by water from Norfolk, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina, they encountered very tempestuous weather, which probably hastened his dissolution. He died serenely and peacefully on the morning of December 25, in his 40th year, and was buried at sea.

He published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, vol. I, 1901, pp. 378-86, 420-31:

Letters on the Revival of Religion in Farmington; republished in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's New England Revivals, 1846, pp. 160-78.

After his death a volume was published for the benefit of his destitute family, with the following title:

Sermons on practical subjects.--To which is added, a Sermon of the Rev. Asahel Hooker, delivered in Farmington, on the occasion of Mr. Washburn's death. Hartford, 1807. 12°, pp. 376. Andover Theol. Sem. Harv. Y. C.

Twenty-three of the author's sermons are included; and at the end is a very interesting list of subscribers, in which one suggestive feature is that over four hundred and fifty copies were taken in the city of Charleston, where large public sympathy had been aroused on account of Mrs. Washburn's afflicted condition. In Connecticut over nine hundred copies were taken.

He married, on August 18, 1795, Sarah, youngest daughter of Deacon Timothy and Jemima (Johnson) Boardman, of Middletown, by whom he had two daughters and two sons. One daughter married the Rev. Dr. Horatio N. Brinsmade (Yale 1822).

Mrs. Washburn next married, on August 23, 1812, Deacon Elijah Porter, of Farmington, who died in 1845; and she died in New York City on July 2, 1847, in her 78th year, at the home of her only surviving son by her first marriage.

( Biographical Sketches of Yale College, by F.B. Dexter, pp. 92-93).

From the guide to the Joseph Washburn family papers, 1783-1829, (Manuscripts and Archives)