Background
Elizur Goodrich was born on Oct. 26, 1734, Hartford County, Connecticut. He was the sixth child of David and Hepzibah (Boardman) Goodrich, and a descendant of William Goodrich who came from England and settled in Wethersfield about 1643.
Elizur Goodrich was born on Oct. 26, 1734, Hartford County, Connecticut. He was the sixth child of David and Hepzibah (Boardman) Goodrich, and a descendant of William Goodrich who came from England and settled in Wethersfield about 1643.
Goodrich prepared for college under Rev. James Lockwood, graduated from Yale in 1752, studied theology, and was tutor at Yale in 1755.
In 1756 Goodrich became pastor of the Congregational church, Durham, Connecticut, where he was ordained November 24. Here he remained until his death, at which time he was recognized as one of the most stalwart and able representatives of the established order. He was an excellent scholar and devoted much time to the interpretation of difficult passages in the Scriptures. His interest in mathematics and astronomy was almost equally keen. He computed the eclipses of each year and wrote a notable account of an Aurora Borealis display. To augment his meager salary, he began to prepare boys for college, and nearly three hundred passed under his instruction. In 1776 he was elected to the Corporation of Yale College. Goodrich and Ezra Stiles received an equal number of votes for the presidency of Yale in 1777, and it was through his exertions in Stiles's behalf that the latter was finally elected. He was repeatedly chosen a member of the Conventions of Delegates from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and the Association of Connecticut (1766-1775), the first of which was called because of alarm over the report that diocesan bishops would be stationed in each of the colonies either by Act of Parliament or the agency of the Church of England. For these conventions he drew up a number of reports, including one in 1774 on the subject of religious liberty in Connecticut. He urged participation in the Revolution as a religious duty, and at one election more than a thousand citizens registered a protest against a supposed weakness in Gov. Trumbull's administration by voting for Parson Goodrich. He died on November 22, 1797.
Goodrich urged participation in the Revolution as a religious duty, and at one election more than a thousand citizens registered a protest against a supposed weakness in Gov. Trumbull’s administration by voting for Parson Goodrich.
Goodrich was an excellent scholar and devoted much time to the interpretation of difficult passages in the Scriptures. His interest in mathematics and astronomy was almost equally keen.
Quotes from others about the person
“No man living probably so well understood the interests of our University, ” Timothy Dwight stated in his funeral discourse on Goodrich, “or for more than twenty years took so active and important a part in its concerns. ”
On February 1, 1759, Goodrich married Catharine Chauncey of Durham. Among their seven children were Chauncey, lawyer and United States senator, and Elizur, congressman, jurist, and educator.
Chauncey Allen Goodrich, lexicographer, Charles Augustus Goodrich, author, and Samuel Griswold Goodrich, better known as Peter Parley, were their grandsons.