1787 JONATHAN FRENCH. American Revolutionary War Patriot Ordination Sermon

French, Jonathan. Pastor of the South Church in Andover and Fighter at Bunker Hill.

Very Rare Sermon Preached at the Ordination of the Reverend Mr. Daniel Oliver, to the Pastoral Care of the Second Church in Beverly, October 3, 1787, Newburyport.

Be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

John Mycall, the publisher, was himself a radical pro-revolutionary who had sworn, at the Stamp Act, never to print a News-Paper burdened with a stamp in the land of Liberty, and where the Press is said to be Free!

He then threatened to either quit publishing altogether or to move to New Hampshire, where presumably his anti-British sentiments would be easier to indulge, and his printing pro-revolutionary publications overlooked.

Rev. Jonathan French, in the South Parish, 1772 to 1809.

Mr. French was born at Braintree, January 30, 1740.

He was of the Pilgrim stock, his mother being a great-granddaughter of John Alden.

Bred on a farm, he at seventeen enlisted as a private in the French War and was sent to Fort Edward. Thence, after a few months, he came back to Boston on account of ill health, but not without having done some valorous deeds in Indian fighting.

He was stationed at Castle William, with the rank of Sergeant.

Fond of books, he took to studying medicine here and practiced surgery, but finally, by the advice of friends who discovered his talent, he resolved to enter the ministry, and to that end set about fitting for college while still doing military duty.

This he accomplished and delivered up his sword only on the day when he entered a Freshman at Harvard.

He had intended to be a missionary to the Indians, perhaps from compunctions derived from his experience and observation in the Indian fighting by Christians, but his plans were changed by his receiving a call to supply the pulpit of the South Church at Andover.

This was given through the influence of Samuel Phillips, Jr., Esq., a classmate in the college of Mr. French, with whom he had formed a warm friendship.

He was, therefore, by some suspected of being not quite sound in the faith.

He, however, was a diligent catechist of the children and visited the schools often to see that the duty of learning the catechism was not neglected.

An active participant in town affairs, a zealous patriot, and a promoter of every proper measure of Revolutionary tendency, he showed even in his peaceful profession his military training and ardor.

In this respect he differed from the minister of the North Parish, who was conservative to a fault, some people thought, but who, after the struggle fairly began, seems to have been a patriot in his sympathies, although he regarded it as not a necessary part of a ministers duty to take interest in political matters. But Parson French could not be inactive.

On Sunday morning, when news of the battle of Bunker Hill came, he took no scrupulous counsel concerning Sabbath-breaking but started for the battlefield with his musket in hand, and his case of surgeons implements and medicines, and, no doubt, as became a minister, with his Bible also.

He rendered valuable aid that day, caring for the wounded and administering comfort and consolation, physical and spiritual.