born April 7, 1780, Newport, R.I., U.S.
died Oct. 2, 1842, Bennington, Vt.
U.S. Unitarian clergyman.
He studied theology at Harvard University and became a successful preacher. From 1803 until his death he was pastor of Boston's Federal Street Church. He began his career as a Congregationalist but gradually adopted liberal and rationalist views that came to be labeled Unitarian. In 1820 he established a conference of liberal Congregationalist clergy, later reorganized as the American Unitarian Association. Known as the "apostle of Unitarianism," he also became a leading figure in New England Transcendentalism , and his lectures and essays on slavery, war, and poverty made him one of the most influential clergymen of his day.