William Jenks was an American clergyman, minister, and professor. He spent 13 years in Maine as minister of the First Church in Bath and as Professor of Oriental languages at Bowdoin College, but the major part of his life was spent in Boston.
Background
Jenks was born on November 25, 1778, in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Samuel and Mary (Haynes) Jenks and a direct descendant of Joseph Jenks, a machinist who came from Hammersmith, England, about 1643. After the death of his mother when he was four years old, the family moved to Boston, where he grew up.
Education
Jenks was educated at Dr. Samuel Cheney's school, the Boston Latin School, and Harvard College where he graduated in 1797. As private tutor and teacher in various schools he fitted twenty-five boys for Harvard, studied theology, and officiated for eight years as reader in Christ Church, Cambridge (1797-1805).
Career
On December 26, 1805, Jenks was ordained at the First Church, Bath, Maine, where he remained as pastor for about thirteen years. During this period he was also an army chaplain in the War of 1812 and secretary of the board of trustees and later professor of Oriental languages and English literature in Bowdoin College (1812-1816).
In 1818 he returned to Boston, opened a private school, and became a pioneer in religious work among seamen. His chapel on Central Wharf was the progenitor of several other institutions for sailors and out of another founded by him at the West End, grew the City Missionary Society and the Shawmut Church. He was also instrumental in founding the Salem Street and Green Street churches and was pastor of the latter from 1826 to 1845.
During his Green Street pastorate Jenks issued his Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible (6 vols. , 1835-1838), a work of great importance in its day. It had an immediate sale of 20, 000 copies and passed through several editions. He was one of the earliest members of the American Antiquarian Society. In 1813 he read before the society the first address to be printed, and on its fiftieth anniversary he delivered another entitled "American Archaeology. " The idea of the American Oriental Society originated with him (Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, post, p. xiv), and he was one of its vice-presidents from its inception in 1842. He was a member of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society and from 1853 to 1858 was chairman of its publishing committee. To the publications of all of these societies he was a prolific contributor. In addition he was the author of many historical and literary articles and pamphlets among which was his pseudonymous Memoir of the Northern Kingdom (1808), an anti-Jeffersonian tract of considerable felicity. His knowledge was extensive and varied, but his biblical and oriental scholarship was outstanding. His private library was considered one of the best in New England. He was a champion of popular education and a friend of the Indian and the Negro.
William Jenks died in Boston on November 13, 1866.
Achievements
Religion
A staunch adherent of the New England theology and in his views of church government a strong Congregationalist, yet he was tolerant toward other faiths and an upholder of the right of private judgment.
Membership
Jenks was one of the earliest members of the American Antiquarian Society, of which he was a corresponding secretary from 1812 to 1816, a member of the council for eleven years, of the committee on publication for fourteen years, and senior vice-president for the last thirteen years of his life.
He was elected to the Massachusetts Historical Society, August 27, 1821, was its librarian from 1823 to 1832, and a member of its publication committee in 1825 and in 1852.
Personality
Jenks was diminutive in stature, but courtly and dignified in bearing, with a certain slight formality which was softened by his constant kindliness of spirit. For many years he went about armed with a huge ear trumpet, the badge of his only infirmity.
Connections
On October 22, 1797, Jenks married Betsey, daughter of Ezekiel and Sarah (Wood) Russell, who died September 14, 1850. Of their sixteen children, seven sons and six daughters survived them.