Henry

Henry Dunster

Henry Dunster was born in England probably in 1612. When about twelve years of age his attention was first cdalled to the religion of Jesus. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, and he had among his fellow-students Ralph Cudworth, Jeremy Taylor, and John Milton. He was no doubt an Episcopal minister at first, and then a pious Puritan. He arrived in Boston in 1640.

Four years previous to the coming of Dunster the General Court had appropriated four hundred pounds to establish a college a Cambridge. Mr. Dunster became president of this institution on the 27^th of August 1640.

He was distinguished for his scholarly attainments in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In his day he was one of the greatest masters of the Oriental languages throughout the colonies, and Quincy, in his “History of Harvard University,” says, “Among the early friends of the college none deserves more distinct notice than Henry Dunster. He united in himself the character of both patron and president; for, poor as he was, he contributed at a time of the utmost need one hundred acres of land towards its support, besides rendering it for a succession of years a series of official services well directed, unwearied, and altogether inestimable.

The charter of 1642 was probably, and that of 1650 was avowedly, obtained on his petition. By solicitations among his friends and by personal sacrifices he built the president’s house. He was instant in season and out of season with the
General Court for the relief of the college in its extreme want.” But Dunster was powerfully affected by the imprisonment of Messrs. Clarke, Holmes, and Crandal at Boston for worshiping God as Baptists, and like a Christian man, despising financial losses and stripes and imprisonment, he boldly preached against infant sprinkling in the church at Cambridge, to the great indignation of its friends there and elsewhere. This sealed his career as president of Harvard. His years of service, marked by a success that created astonishment and gratitude, were quickly forgotten when, as Cotton Mather said, “he fell into the briers of anti-pedobaptism.”

Quincy says, “Indicted by the grand jury for disturbing the ordinance of infant baptism in the Cambridge church, sentenced to a public admonition, and laid under bonds for good behavior, Dunster’s martyrdom was consummated by being compelled to resign his office of president.” “He found the seminary a school, it rose under his auspices to the dignity of a college. No man ever questioned his talents, learning, exemplary fidelity, and usefulness.” Dunster deserves all this from the historian of Harvard. He was noble a servant as ever followed Christ in times when truth demanded painful sacrifices. It is singular that such a man should become a Baptist. Brought up under other influences, having everything earthly to lose and nothing to gain, a profound scholar capable of weighing the merits of the controversy, nothing but the force of truth can account for his adoption of our sentiments. Like Alexander Carson, Adoniram Judson, Baptist W. Noel, and many others of culture and intellect, a tender conscience and the power of truth alone can account for the change. He died Feb. 27, 1659, and entered into that world where both the wicked and the godly cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.