Abraham Pierson was an American Congregational clergyman and rector.
Background
He was born at Lynn, Massachussets, United States. He must have been born some time between March 5, 1644/5 and March 5, 1645/6. He was the son of Abraham Pierson, who in 1640 came from England to Boston, and is said to have married a daughter of Rev. John Wheelwright, though the tradition seems doubtful.
His father, having left Lynn in December 1640, was still pastor of the Church at Southampton, Long Island, from which he moved in 1647 to Branford, Connecticut. In the latter settlement, only recently established, Abraham grew up.
Education
He received his early instruction, first, from his father and later, it is thought, from Rev. John Davenport and some of the early schoolmasters of New Haven. Graduating from Harvard in 1668, with a classmate, John Prudden, he studied theology for about a year under Rev. Roger Newton of Milford, Connecticut.
Career
In the summer of 1669 he was called to the pastorate of the church at Woodbridge, New Jersey, but declined, and became assistant to his father, now pastor of the church at Newark. In March 1672 he was made copastor.
After the death of the elder Pierson in 1678 his son became sole pastor, remaining in that capacity for nearly fourteen years. Differing convictions with respect to ecclesiastical polity on the part of minister and people severed their relationship early in 1692, Pierson favoring a moderate form of presbyterian government, while a majority of his parishioners were strongly congregational. Returning to Connecticut, he was immediately called to the church in Greenwich, but declined to be installed there, although he agreed to supply the pulpit.
Two years later he accepted an invitation from the people of Killingworth, now Clinton, to become their pastor.
In the charter establishing a collegiate school of Yale College, granted by the General Court of Connecticut in October 1701, he was named one of the ten trustees, and at their first meeting, which began on November 11, he was elected rector.
So far as is known he published nothing; although he prepared a textbook on physics which in manuscript was long used in the early days of Yale. A letter to Increase Mather is printed in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, two letters to Fitz-John Winthrop are printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
His connection with the school caused serious friction between himself and his parishioners, but before the questions involved could be settled Pierson was seized with a violent illness which resulted in his death in 1707.
Achievements
Abraham Pierson was prominent among the Connecticut ministers who laid the foundations of Yale College and its first rector. He also was the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Killingworth, where he brought peace and unity into a disrupted congregation, and had a successful pastorate. During his work here the old church building was torn down and a new one erected, for which a bell, probably one of the first in Connecticut to summon people to worship, was secured in 1703.
Abraham Pierson School in Clinton, Connecticut (grades 4-5), was named for him; and a bronze statue of him is located on East Main Street in Clinton, Connecticut.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
According to a description given, it is said, by one who had seen and heard him often, Pierson was "something taller than a middle size, a fleshy, well formed and comely looking man, exceeding pious, and an excellent preacher; kind and charitable to the poor and indigent, who in a special manner lamented his death".
Connections
In 1673 he married Abigail Clark, with whom he had become acquainted in Milford, a daughter of George Clark, one of the first settlers of that town.
