(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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James Dana was born in 1735 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He was third in descent from Richard Dana who came from England to America about 1640, and son of Caleb, a tanner, and Phoebe (Chandler) Dana. His father was a brother of Richard Dana, leader of the Boston bar.
At the age of eighteen James graduated from Harvard; then for some time continued his studies there.
The University of Edinburgh honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1768.
In 1758 James was called to the church in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States, which had been without a pastor since the death of Reverend Samuel Whittelsey in 1752, and a council was summoned to ordain him.
There followed the “Wallingford Controversy, ” a noted incident in the ecclesiastical history of the state. Coming from Massachusetts, Dana was suspected of unorthodoxy, and known to be of the “Old Light” party. Some of the church, instigated, it is said, by “New Light” ministers, determined to prevent his ordination by bringing complaint before the consociation of the county.
Ordaining council and consociation met on the same day. Haled before the latter, Dana and his church protested its jurisdiction over them in such a case, and the council, though forbidden by the consociation, proceeded to ordain.
Later that body, augmented by the Hartford consociation, declared the pastoral relation between Dana and the church dissolved, and since both ignored the action, it finally passed sentence of non-communion upon them and those who sat in the ordaining council.
Despite its inauspicious opening, Dana’s career in Connecticut was long and distinguished. His learning, sturdy conscientiousness, and good judgment came to be generally respected among the clergy.
He won favor with many, also, by taking an early and decided stand for national independence, and whenever the General Assembly met in New Haven, its members expected the pastor of the First Church, Dana’s brother- in-law, Chauncey Whittelsey, to exchange with him. Of this church he himself was installed pastor, April 29, 1789, the council being made memorable by a theological tilt between Dana and Jonathan Edwards, the younger.
In the controversy between the “Old Divinity” and the “New” he became a strong defender of the former as against the opinions of Drs. Bellamy, Hopkins, West, and Edwards.
In 1770 he published anonymously An Examination of the Late Reverend President Edwards’s ‘Enquiry on Freedom of Will, ’ and in 1773, under his name, The "Examination. ”
Captivated by the preaching of Moses Stuart who supplied the church during the pastor’s illness, the Society voted in 1805 that “Dr. Dana retire from his pastoral labors. ” In December he was dismissed by council, but continued to reside in New Haven until his death.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Dana is described by those who knew him as kindly and companionable, an interesting conversationalist, and everywhere at ease.
Physically he was the mere shadow of a man, tall, slender, and with a sharp, thin face.
On May 8, 1759 Dana married Catherine Whittelsey, the daughter of his predecessor at Wallingford, and a granddaughter of President Chauncy of Harvard.
His first wife died August 18, 1795, and on July 10 of the following year he married Mrs. Abigail (Porter) Belden, daughter of Dr. Ezekiel Porter. She died March 17, 1798, and on September 14, he married Mrs. Mary (Miles) Rice. Samuel Whittelsey Dana, lawyer, and United States senator, was his son.
