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Rev. Jonathan Leavitt (1731–1802) was an early New England Congregational minister, born in Connecticut, and subsequently the pastor of churches in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, both of which dismissed him from his posts. Several of Rev. Leavitt's descendants became among the most noted abolitionists of their day, even though the difficult Reverend was dismissed from one pastorate for allegedly abusing his runaway slave, and from another for his Loyalist sentiments. == Early life and career beginnings == Jonathan Leavitt was born on January 11, 1731, in Suffield, Massachusetts, the son of Lieutenant Joshua Leavitt 〔Lieut. Joshua Leavitt was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1687, and subsequently moved to Suffield, Connecticut, then part of Massachusetts, where he married Hannah Devotion.()〕 and his wife Mary Thomas (Winchell) Leavitt.〔The Winchell home in Suffield remained in the Leavitt family for generations. Rev. Jonathan Leavitt conveyed his interest in the home of his mother's Winchell family to his brother John Leavitt in 1752.()〕 Jonathan Leavitt was one of three children of Lieut. Leavitt and his second wife.〔Rev. Jonathan Leavitt had two sisters, Hannah and Mary. By his first wife, Hannah Devotion, Lieut. Joshua Leavitt had another seven children, including Rev. Freegrace Leavitt, half-brother to Rev. Jonathan Leavitt.()〕 The family was among the earliest settlers of Suffield, and were prosperous, his father Lieut. Leavitt a well-to-do farmer and officeholder.〔(Documentary History of Suffield, Hezekiah Spencer Sheldon, Printed by the Clark W. Bryan Company, Springfield, Mass., 1879 )〕 But before Rev. Leavitt was two years old, his father, a brother and a sister all perished of disease within three days of each other. Nevertheless, Rev. Leavitt and two of his brothers attended Yale College. His sister Jemima Leavitt married Capt. David Ellsworth, and became mother of Chief Justice of the United States and Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth.〔(Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1638–1905, Vol. III, Almira Larkin White, Press of Nichols the Printer, Haverhill, Mass., 1905 )〕 Jonathan Leavitt graduated from Yale College in 1758 〔(Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. II, May, 1745–May, 1763, Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1896 )〕 and afterwards was ordained minister 〔The choice of the ministry probably came naturally to Jonathan Leavitt, whose great-great-grandfather John Leavitt was founding deacon of Old Ship Church, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meeting house in America.〕 of Walpole, New Hampshire, on May 27, 1761.〔(Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. IV, Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1907 )〕 On the occasion of his ordination, Rev. Leavitt's brother Rev. Freegrace Leavitt,〔 a fellow Congregationalist minister, preached the installation sermon – at a local home as Walpole's meeting house had yet to be built.〔(''The ministerial office, a good work'', Rev. Freegrace Leavitt, National Library of Australia Catalogue )〕 The formal rigor of Congregationalism was in full bloom in Walpole, as elsewhere across the New England states. Rev. Leavitt wore a large, full-powdered wig, "and when he entered the meeting-house, the whole congregation rose to do obeisance to the man in black, who, in his turn, always responded with a full bow." Trailing the prim minister was his wife, Sarah (Hooker) Leavitt, great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Puritan divine and founder of the state of Connecticut.〔(The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hartford, Connecticut, 1586–1908, Edward Hooker, Margaret Huntington Hooker, E. R. Andrews Printing Company, Rochester, N. Y., 1909 )〕 Mrs. Leavitt was gotten up in "full suit of brocade lutestring, without any bonnet, holding a fan to shade the sun from her face, as was the fashion 'down country.'"〔(Historical Sketch of Col. Benjamin Bellows, Founder of Walpole, Henry Whitney Bellows, John A. Gray, Printer, New York, 1855 )〕 Leavitt's initial pay at Walpole was set at £75 sterling, and, as was the custom of the day, the financial terms of his contract were carefully delineated – with annual raises in pay stipulated in the document, as well as free use of a minister's house lot. But Leavitt's tenure was apparently tenuous from the start. Within three years, he was dismissed by the new congregation. Although the exact reason is unclear, the new Reverend was said to have been spotted being cruel to a slave.〔Rev. Jonathan Leavitt's father Lieut. Joshua Leavitt of Suffield, Connecticut, had also been an early slaveholder, whose slave 'Princess' died at Suffield on November 5, 1732.(Documentary History of Suffield in the Colony and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1660–1749, Hezekiah Spencer Sheldon, Clark W. Bryan Company, Springfield, Mass., 1879 )〕 "It is handed down that, having dragged home a negro slave, a woman, who had run away, by a rope attached to his saddle", according to a history of Walpole, "(local citizen ) Colonel Bellows declared that such cruelty should not be submitted to; that he had settled Parson Leavitt, and now he would unsettle him. Ministers, however, were not got rid of so easily in those days. Being settled for life, they had rights which they well understood; and it is plain that some considerable diplomacy was required to shake Mr. Leavitt off."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jonathan Leavitt (minister)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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