Reverend Samuel Willard

1640 - 1707  (67 years)    Has 2 ancestors and 11 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Samuel Willard
  Prefix	Reverend
  Birth	31 Jan 1640	Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	12 Sep 1707
  Siblings	1 Sibling
  + 1. Josiah Willard   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ Hannah Hosmer + 2. Reverend Samuel Willard,   b. 31 Jan 1640, Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA d. 12 Sep 1707  (Age 67 years) ▻ Abigail Sherman,  m. 08 Aug 1664
  Person ID	I682567	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	18 Oct 2010

  
  

  Father	Simon Willard   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Mary Sharpe   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F121150	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Abigail Sherman,   b. 3 Feb 1645, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA d. 1679 (Age 33 years)
  Marriage	08 Aug 1664
  Children	+ 1. Abigail Willard
  Family ID	F348836	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	18 Oct 2010

  
  

• Notes

  one of seventeen children born to the family Harvard College 1659, pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, vice-president of Harvard College and the acting president of Harvard College graduated at Harvard in 1659; and was minister at Groton from 1663 to 1676, whence he was driven by the Indians during King Philip's War. The Reverend Willard was pastor of the Third Church, Boston, from 1678 until his death. He strenuously opposed the witchcraft trials, and served as acting president of Harvard from 1701. The Reverend Willard published many sermons; a folio volume entitled A Compleat Body of Divinity was published posthumously in 1726. At the age of fifteen, Willard entered Harvard College in 1655, graduating in 1659, and was the only member of his class to receive an M.A. In 1663, Willard began preaching in Groton, Massachusetts, then at the very frontier of the Massachusetts colony. The town's first minister, John Miller, had become ill, and when he died, the congregation asked Willard to stay, and he was officially ordained by them in 1664 In 1670 he became a freeman, with full privileges of citizenship. In 1671, a 16-year-old girl in town, Elizabeth Knapp, fell ill and appeared to be possessed. Willard wrote about the strange behavior. Groton was destroyed on March 10, 1676, during King Philip's War, and the 300 residents abandoned the town. Willard and his family removed to Charlestown, Massachusetts. Willard preached at Boston's Third Church during the illness of Rev. Thomas Thacher and gave an election-day sermon on June 5. The Third Church called Willard to be its Teacher, an associate pastor, on April 10, 1678. When Thacher died on October 15, Willard became their only pastor. Members of the congregation included a variety of influential members of the colony: John Hull, Samuel Sewall, Edward Rawson, Thomas Brattle, Joshua Scottow, Hezekiah Usher, and Capt. John Alden (the son of John and Priscilla Alden of Plymouth). Willard was the acting president of Harvard, although having the nominal title of vice-president, from 1701 until his death in 1707