Breck, Robert, Jr (2)

Breck, Robert, Jr.

a Congregational minister, was born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, July 25, 1713. He graduated at Harvard College in 1730. About 1733 he began preaching in Windham, Connecticut. He was ordained pastor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Church July 26, 1736; although nearly the whole Hampshire Association opposed the ordination on the ground of heterodoxy, and a portion of the parish remonstrated against it. The controversy was the occasion of three spirited pamphlets, two by the County Association, and one by the Ordaining Council. Although he was indiscreet, doubtless, previous to his ordination, after that event he exhibited great prudence, and succeeded in harmonizing the elements in his parish. He died April 23, 1784. Several of his published sermons are extant. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 1:385.