Background
Rich was the son of Review Elisha Rich and Mary Davis. His father being a Baptist and his mother an adherent of the "standing order," he probably became accustomed to hearing discussions of religious questions in his boyhood.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Caleb Rich
Edit Profilefounder of American Universalism
Career
He was nominally a Baptist, and retained his connection with that denomination until after his removal to Warwick at about twenty-one years of age. Soon after, in 1773, these brothers with one or two associates formed the new society at Warwick, and Caleb became the minister. In 1775, at the "Lexington alarm," he marched as a minuteman, under Captain
Wright, for Cambridge, and after being there a few weeks obtained a furlough and went to visit among his relatives at Sutton and Oxford.
There his ordination as a minister occurred in 1781. After having remained in Warwick about thirty years, he removed to Shoreham, Vt, and later to New Haven, Vt, in which place and vicinity he continued to preach, as his health permitted.
He was familiar with the scriptures, delighted in arguments of doctrine subjects, and was more than an ordinary man as a thinker, but as a preacher he did not excel.
