William Brattle

Background

William Brattle was born on November 22, 1662 at Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He was the son of the wealthy and prominent Thomas and Elizabeth (Tyng) Brattle of Boston.

Education

Brattle graduated from Harvard College in 1680.

Career

After graduating from Harvard College, he became a tutor, and from 1696 to 1700 was a Fellow in the Corporation. During the four years while President Increase Mather was in Europe, Brattle and John Leverett, as the principal directors and teachers in the College, followed a policy which "inclined to the order of things which was coming". Even Cotton Mather noted that the College flourished under their "prudent government".

As late as 1765 his Compendium Logicae Secundum Principia D. Renati Cartesii, the first American textbook on logic, was used at Harvard.

In 1696, the year of his election to the Harvard Corporation, Brattle was also ordained pastor of the church in Cambridge. On this occasion he evidenced his independence regarding established ecclesiastical usages, and as the result of his unceasing exertion, his church discontinued the formal and public relation of religious experience required of candidates for church membership.

This liberalism, as well as his championship of other innovations, was probably an important factor in his exclusion from the Harvard Corporation in 1700, to which position, however, he returned three years later when the influence of his group replaced that of the Mathers. Although it has been held that Brattle's doctrinal opinions were of the strict Puritan school manuscript notes taken on his sermons by John Hancock (1671 - 1752) indicate as strong an interest in ethical questions as in Calvinistic theology.

His preaching, which enjoyed a high reputation, was described as "calm, and soft, and melting".

Achievements

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

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sundry rules and directions for drawing up a regiment, posting the officers, &c. Taken from the best and latest authority; for the use and benefit of ... of Militia in the County of Middlesex.

    ( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)

  • Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University: In Cambridge, Massachusetts Volume 1

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Compendium logicae secundum principia: D. Renati Cartesii plerumque efformatum, et catechisticè propositum. (Latin Edition)

    ( Title: Compendium logicae secundum principia : D. Renat...)

  • Original 41pp Manuscript in the original sheep notebook

Religion

In his religious affiliation William Brattle was a Congregationalist. Urbane, scholarly, serenely tolerant, William Brattle, by his character and influence, contributed to the mellowing of orthodox Puritanism. God's delight in mercy and Christ's mission to save sinners were doctrines which apparently found an important place in his sermons.

Views

Indeed, though Brattle was sympathetic with the organization of the liberal Brattle Street Church, initiated by his brother Thomas, he seems to have mingled very little in theological controversies, and "being of a catholic and pacific spirit" to have sought harmony.

Also, skillful in business, he was also a generous but quiet philanthropist.

Quotations: "Follow peace with all men, " and "let us excite within us compassions" were mellow sentiments in his sermons.

Personality

As a tutor, Brattle was described by a student as "able, faithful, and tender, " and his heroism during the smallpox epidemic, together with his "fatherly goodness" and continued benefactions, won him the title of "Father of the College. "

Connections

From his marriage with Elizabeth Hayman one son, William, who achieved distinction in the provincial militia, survived him. Toward the end of his life Brattle married Elizabeth Gerrish.

Father:

Thomas Brattle

Mother:

Elizabeth (Tyng) Brattle

1st wife:

Elizabeth Hayman

2nd wife:

Elizabeth Gerrish

colleague:

John Leverett

Son:

William Brattle

Brother:

Thomas Brattle

References

• Lectures on the History of the First Church in Cambridge (Classic Reprint)