Background
David Austin was born on March19, 1759 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He was a descendant of David Austin, a prosperous merchant, and Mary (Mix) Austin.
David Austin was born on March19, 1759 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He was a descendant of David Austin, a prosperous merchant, and Mary (Mix) Austin.
He graduated from Yale in 1779, studied theology under Dr. Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem, Connecticut, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven Association of Congregational Ministers, May 30, 1780.
In 1781 Austin went to Europe and spent nearly a year in travel. Upon his return he supplied several churches, and while at Norwich, Connecticut, became engaged to Lydia, daughter of Dr. Joshua Lathrop, whom he married June 5, 1783. On Sept. 9, 1788, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Presbyterian church in Elizabeth, N. J. While here he undertook several literary enterprises, editing The Christian's, Scholar's and Farmer's Magazine, a bi-monthly, the first number of which was for April and May 1789. He also published by subscription "The American Preacher. " The first three volumes of this appeared in 1791 and the fourth in 1793.
In 1791 he had become interested in the study of prophecy and was soon convinced that the millennium was at hand. This belief became an obsession. A severe attack of scarlet fever in 1795 aggravated his eccentricities. Thereafter, he thought of little but the second advent, and finally predicted that May 15, 1796, would be the date of its occurrence. With a crowd of excited people he awaited the event in church, but as the day wore on and nothing unusual happened, he finally arose and preached from the text, "My Lord delayeth his coming. " His ingenuity found excuses for his mistake, and his faith in the imminence of the advent was more ardent than ever. At length his church felt obliged to ask the presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relation, at which request he withdrew from the Presbyterian denomination. His subsequent career was a checkered one.
Returning to New Haven he expended his fortune in building houses, stores, and wharfs for the Jews who he believed would assemble there on their way to the Holy Land to await the Messiah. He affiliated himself with the Baptists for a while, spent considerable time in New York, Washington, and New Jersey where he sought unsuccessfully to get reinstated in the Presbyterian Church. Finally, in 1815, he became pastor of the Congregational church in Bozrah, Connecticut, and remained there until his death.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
He was a man of great energy, lively imagination, and excitable temperament, regarded from boyhood as brilliant but erratic.
He married Lydia Lathrop on June 5, 1783.
