Background
Benjamin Hallett was born on January 18, 1760, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States; he was descended from Andrew Hallett, who settled on Cape Cod about 1646. He was the son of Jonathan and Mercy (Bacon) Hallett.
Benjamin Hallett was born on January 18, 1760, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States; he was descended from Andrew Hallett, who settled on Cape Cod about 1646. He was the son of Jonathan and Mercy (Bacon) Hallett.
Benjamin Hallett served in the Revolution, on board of the frigate Deane and in the land forces, and at the close of the war turned his attention to the coasting trade. In 1788 he established a packet line between Boston and Albany, a business then thought in danger of being crowded because of the two sloops engaged in it. In 1808 his famous sloop Ten Sisters was built in the yard of Richard Hill at Catskill, New York, and for many years sailed as a fast packet between New York and Boston.
Shortly after the War of 1812, on the deck of the Ten Sisters, anchored in Coenties Slip, New York, he held his first religious service for seamen. This was at the beginning of the movement for religious and social work among seamen later known as the “Bethel Movement. ” At first it consisted of services on the decks of ships, announced by a special flag displayed at the masthead. The Reverend Gardiner Spring, pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, soon lent his hearty approval and cooperation, but the other New York ministers were not at first in sympathy with the project, and left it entirely to laymen of whom Hallett was one of the leading spirits.
After several years of successful work in New York, he took his Bethel flag to Boston. After his retirement to his farm in Barnstable, the work ceased to consist of deck services and was transferred to chapels for seamen - “seamen’s Bethels” - which became numerous in Boston, New York, and other cities. Hallett’s Bethel flag was then permanently established at the Seamen’s Chapel on Central Wharf in Boston.
Hallett was an active Christian from his twentieth year and for seventy years a prominent layman of the Baptist denomination. He is said to have been singularly gifted in prayer and exhortation.
Benjamin Hallett married Abigail Lovell of Barnstable, who died December 5, 1845. Their family consisted of one son, Benjamin F. Hallett, and twelve daughters.