Abbot, Jacob

Abbot, Jacob a Unitarian minister, was born at Wilton, N. H., Jan. 7,1768. He prosecuted his studies, in preparation for college, under a Mr. Birge, who had opened a school in Wilton. He graduated at Harvard College in 1792, and immediately began teaching school in Billerica, Mass. Whatever of leisure he could command he devoted to the study of theology, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Cumming, the Congregational minister of that place. He continued teaching but one year, when he returned to Cambridge and continued his theological studies under the direction of Dr. Tappan. He commenced preaching in 1795. After preaching in various places until 1797, he went to Coventry, Conn., and was shortly afterwards engaged to preach in the neighboring parish of Gilead. In 1798 he went to Hampton Falls, and commenced preaching there as a candidate. In due time a call was presented him, which he accepted, and was constituted their pastor in August of the same year. He was for many years a useful member of the Board of Trustees of the Exeter Phillips Academy; and also, for some years; a trustee of the Female Academy at Derry. He resigned his charge at Hampton Falls in April, 1826, and removed to a farm in Windham, N.H., where he preached occasionally in neighboring parishes. During the winter of 1827-28 he supplied Dr. Abiel Abbot's pulpit in Beverly, Mass. At Windham he preached, after a Unitarian society was formed there, and also superintended the schools of the town. On Nov. 2,1834, as he was crossing a pond on his return from meeting, the boat was upset and he was drowned. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 8, 320.