{{other people}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = Nathaniel Thayer | image =Rev. Nathaniel Thayer 1769-1840.jpg | caption =portrait attributed to Gilbert Stuart | birth_date = {{birth date|1769|07|11}} | birth_place = Hampton, New Hampshire, British America | death_date = {{death date and age|1840|06|23|1769|07|11}} | death_place = Rochester, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = Harvard College | parents = {{ubl|Ebenezer Thayer|Martha Cotton Thayer}} | spouse = {{marriage|Sarah Parker Toppan|October 22, 1795}} | children = 8, including Nathaniel }}
'''Nathaniel Thayer''' (July 11, 1769 – June 23, 1840) was a congregational Unitarian{{citation needed|reason=Congregational and Unitarian churches differ radically in Christology. Which was Thayer?|date=December 2013}} minister.
==Early life== Nathaniel Thayer was born in Hampton, New Hampshire to Ebenezer Thayer and Martha Olivia Cotton. His father was a pastor in Hampton for many years. His maternal grandfather was John Cotton of Newton, Massachusetts, who was the great-grandson of John Cotton.<ref name="bms597"/><ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons' |wstitle=Thayer, Nathaniel |year=1889}}</ref>
==Career== Thayer graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, then Harvard College in 1789 and was ordained junior pastor of a Congregational meeting house in Lancaster, Massachusetts on October 9, 1793. In 1789 the town of Lancaster gave him land on Main street, just south of the church, to build a permanent residence. There he built a twelve-room home. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Harvard in 1817.<ref name="bms597">{{cite web |url=http://div.hds.harvard.edu/library/bms/bms00597.html |title=Nathaniel Thayer. Papers, 1798-1844. |accessdate=2007-03-16 |date=2005-11-22 |work=Harvard Divinity School Library |publisher=Harvard Divinity School}}</ref> The Lancaster congregation's fifth meeting house designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1816, was built during his tenure.
Respected for his "tact and sagacity", Thayer's involvement was often sought to settle ecclesiastical disputes across the state of Massachusetts. As a result, in his 47 years as a minister, he served on more than 150 church councils,<ref>{{cite book |last=Sprague |first=William B. |title=Annals of the American Pulpit: Or, Commemorative Notices of Distinguished Clergymen of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Vol 5 |year=1865 |publisher=Robert Carter & Brothers |location=New York |pages=246–50 |orig-date=1857}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor=Wilson, James Grant |editor2=John Fiske |encyclopedia=Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography |title=Nathaniel Thayer |year=1968 |orig-date=1889 |publisher=Gale Research |volume=VI |location= |pages=73}}</ref> and he frequently drew up the decisions.<ref name=acab/>
For a number of years, Thayer was involved in a dispute with James G. Carter, then-Deacon of Thayer's congregation and later a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, over the latter's refusal to return funds donated toward the establishment of an instructional academy that failed to materialise. Thayer publicly denounced Carter's actions and called on him to reimburse donors of the failed project. Carter, however, refused and was eventually removed from his position as the church's Deacon. Messerli (1965) argues that Carter's alienation of Thayer (and, by extension, most of the state's clergy) significantly contributed to his loss to Horace Mann in the 1837 election for the position of Secretary of the just-established Massachusetts Board of Education, the first state board of education in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Messerli |first=Jonathan C. |date=March 1965 |title=James G. Carter's Liabilities as a Common School Reformer |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=19–20 |doi=10.2307/366934 |publisher=History of Education Society |jstor=366934|s2cid=147108581 }}</ref>
== Personal life == On October 22, 1795, Thayer married Sarah Parker Toppan, daughter of Christopher Toppan and Sarah Parker, by whom he had eight children.<ref name="bms597"/>
* Sarah "Sally" Toppan Thayer (1796–1831) * Martha Thayer (b. 1798) * Mary Ann Thayer (b. 1800) * Nathaniel Thayer (1802) died of "fits" at 6 weeks * John Elliott Thayer (1803–1857), who married Adele Granger (1819–1892), the daughter of U.S. Representative Francis Granger in 1855. After his early death, she married Robert Charles Winthrop (1809–1894).<ref name="Reynolds1914">{{cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Cuyler|title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation|date=1914|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/genealogicalfami00reyn/page/1151 1151]|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalfami00reyn|accessdate=25 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> * Christopher Toppan Thayer (b. 1805) * Nathaniel Thayer, Jr. (1808–1883), who married Cornelia Patterson Van Rensselaer (1823–1897), daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer IV.<ref name="Reynolds1914"/> * Abigail Thayer (1812–1834)
Thayer died June 30, 1840, in Rochester, New York at the age of 71, "while journeying for pleasure & improvement of his health, to the falls at Niagara on a trip for health reasons."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/worcester/towns/lancaster/vitals/lancdea10.txt|title = Ancestry® | Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records}}</ref>
==References== ;Notes {{reflist|30em}}
;Sources *Nathaniel Thayer, Papers, bMS 597, [http://library.hds.harvard.edu/ Harvard Divinity School Library], Harvard Divinity School; Papers, 1798-1844. *''A sermon delivered before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in Boston, June 4, 1798: being the anniversary of their election of officers''; Boston: Printed by Manning & Loring, 1798; 20pp *''The preaching and practice of the apostles recommended as a model for the ministers of Christ: a sermon preached at the ordination of the Rev. Elihu Whitcomb, as pastor of the Christian Society in Pepperellborough, on the 3d. of July, 1799''; Printed at Portland [Me.] by B. Titcomb, 1799. 22pp *''A sermon delivered at Lancaster...Dec. 29, 1816''; Worcester, 1817 *''A discourse, pronounced before His Excellency John Brooks, esq., governor, His Honor William Phillips, esq., lieutenant governor, the honorable council, and the two houses, composing the Legislature of Massachusetts, on the anniversary election, May 28, 1823''; Boston, Printed by order of the legislature, 1823; 24 pp. *''A discourse, delivered January 27, 1830, at the ordination of Rev. Christopher T. Thayer, to the pastoral care of the first parish in Beverly, MA''. Salem: Foote & Brown, 1830; 36 pp. *Nathaniel Thayer. ''Records of the'' [Lancaster, Massachusetts Congregational] ''Church in the Case of Deacon James G. Carter and a Reply to the Communicate Made by him to the Brethren, on the Day of His Removal from the Office of Deacon''; Lancaster, 1832
==External links== * The [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00597 papers] of Nathaniel Thayer are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Nathaniel}} Category:1769 births Category:1840 deaths Category:American Congregationalist ministers Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni