Andrew Eliot (184)

Elected to the American Society.

Andrew Eliot (21 December 1718–13 September 1778) was a minister and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born in Boston, he received exactly the early and advanced education his Puritan pedigree would have hoped for: a BA (1737) and MA (1740) from Harvard College. He was ordained in 1742 and shortly thereafter began his position of junior minister at Boston’s New North Church. By 1750, Eliot had assumed the role of sole minister to the congregation. Later in life, friends of Eliot (including Benjamin Franklin) would lobby to secure him additional divinity degrees. Once established, he promptly went to work softening church requirements surrounding practices such as baptism and conversion narratives. Relatedly, he supported the continuation of his ancestors’ work by joining missionary organizations in London, Edinburgh, and his home colony of Massachusetts. In addition to religious activities, Eliot also devoted his time and energy to his alma mater. He served Harvard College in a number of capacities including clerk and secretary before he was elected to the corporation. When fighting erupted at Lexington and Concord, Eliot sent his family away while British officers prevented his departure until March of 1776 with the evacuation of the city. Though Eliot would not live to see the end of the war, he died with an increasingly optimistic vision for the colonies’ independence. (PI)