William Arthur

Background

William Arthur was born on December 5, 1797 at "The Draen" near Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, the only son of Alan and Eliza McHarg Arthur.

Education

After a thorough preliminary training, he entered Queen's College, Belfast, and was graduated from that institution at the early age of eighteen.

Career

Deciding to seek a career in the United States, he sailed from Liverpool to New York, and from there went to Vermont, where he attempted to earn a living by teaching school, at the same time studying law in the office of Cornelius P. Van Ness at Burlington. He soon resolved, however, to prepare himself for the ministry and began preaching in various Baptist churches.

Family tradition interestingly pictures William Arthur's early efforts as a Baptist preacher in this town. He at first preached in the district school-house, but his ability and eloquence soon led to a change because the building was too small to hold the crowds that gathered to hear him. A spacious barn in the neighborhood was secured, and here the young Irishman preached to a congregation seated on slabs placed on the barn floor, while the deacons and older men sat in the stalls for the horses and cattle, and the young people were grouped on the edges of the haymows above.

Arthur continued to preach in various Vermont churches--Burlington, Jericho, Williston, Richford, Pownal, Waterville, and Hinesburgh--until 1835, when he removed to New York. Here he labored in the ministry successively at York, Perry, Greenwich, Schenectady, Lansingburgh, Hoosic, West Troy, and Albany. In the last city, he was pastor of the State Street Baptist Church from 1857 to 1864, when he retired, to reside at Newtonville, New York, and to devote the remainder of his life chiefly to literary pursuits. Here he died on Oct. 27, 1875.

Arthur was a student of the classics, especially of antiquities. When living in Schenectady he began the publication of a magazine with the lengthy title of The Antiquarian, and General Review: comprising Whatever is Useful and Instructive in Ecclesiastical or Historical Antiquities; Serving as a Book of Useful Reference, on Subjects of Research and Curiosity. This work he edited through four volumes, the last two being published at Lansingburgh. It contained articles quoted from historical and antiquarian reviews, accounts of recent discoveries, and some original contributions of merit, especially those written by himself on Irish antiquities and on the derivation of proper names.

In 1857 he published An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names, with an Essay on their Derivation and Import, a scholarly work much in advance of anything written on the subject up to that time.

Achievements

• William Arthur has been listed as a noteworthy clergyman by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

• book

  • An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names: With an Essay on Their Derivation and Import (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Chr...)

  • An Etymological Dictionary Of Family And Christian Names: With An Essay On Their Derivation And Import FACSIMILE

    (HIGH QUALITY FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Arthur, William: An ...)

  • An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names with an Essay on Their Derivation and Import - Primary Source Edition

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With An Essay on Their Derivation and Import

Connections

On April 12, 1821, he married Malvina Stone, by whom he had seven children, of whom the second, Chester Alan Arthur, future President of the United States, was born at Fairfield.

Father:

Alan Arthur

Mother:

Eliza (McHarg) Arthur

Spouse:

Malvina (Stone) Arthur

Son:

Chester Alan Arthur