Chaplin, Jeremiah, D.D., was born in Rowley, Mass., Jan. 2, 1776. The name of daily birthplace has been changed to Georgetown.

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Chaplin, Jeremiah, D.D., was born in Rowley, Mass., Jan. 2, 1776. The name of his birthplace has been changed to Georgetown. When but ten years of age he became a Christian, and was re-received by baptism into the church. Like so many eminent men in the denomination, he spent his youth upon his father’s farm, strengthening his physical system by forming habits of inestimable value for after-life. At the age of nineteen, he entered Brown University, and was graduated as the first scholar in his class in 1799. For one year he was tutor in the university, and then pursued his theological studies under Rev. Dr. Baldwin, of Boston. In the summer of 1802 he became the pastor of the Baptist church in Danvers, Mass. Besides performing with strict fidelity his work as a minister, he gave instruction to young men look- ing forward to the Christian ministry. His ministry in Danvers continued for fourteen years. The reputation of Dr. Chaplin as a profound theologian and a devout Christian grew every year of his pastorate, and when, in 1807, it was proposed to open in Waterville, Me., a school for theological instruction with a view to meet the wants of the rising ministry in the district of Maine, the atten- tion of the friends of the enterprise was turned to the Danvers pastor as a most suitable person to take charge of the institution. Three years’ exper- iment led the trustees to decide to enlarge the sphere of its operations, and in 1820 a charter was secured, and Waterville College, now Colby University, commenced its existence, with Dr. Chaplin as its first president, which relation he sustained for thirteen years. It was’a period of great toil and self-sacrifice, and a man of less heroic courage and persistency would have sunk under the heavy burdens which he bore through all these arduous years. ‘The college was his idol, if he had any, and with unceasing effort he labored for its welfare. “Under his wise and efficient administration of its affairs,” says Prof. Conant, ‘‘ the college was pro- vided with the necessary buildings, library, philo- sophical and chemical apparatus, and the founda- tion laid of permanent prosperity in the confidence and attachment of its numerous friends.” Dr. Chaplin resigned the presidency of the col- lege in 1833. Freed now from the weighty cares and responsibilities which had pressed so heavily upon him for thirteen years, he entered once more upon the work he so much loved, that of preacher and pastor of a church of Christ. This service he performed in Rowley, Mass., and at Willington, Conn., for several years. He died at Hamilton, N. Y., May 7, 1841. No one could be brought in contact with Dr. Chaplin without feeling that he was worthy of the universal respect which he inspired as a scholar, and especially as a profound theologian. The Hon. James Brooks, who was a student under him, says of him,— “His discourses were as clear, as cogent, as irresistibly convincing as problems in Euclid. He indulged in little or no ornament, but pursued one train of thought without deviation to the end. I attribute to him more than to any one else the fixture in my own mind of religious truths which no subsequent reading has ever been able to shake, and which have principally influenced my pen in treating of all political, legal, or moral subjects, the basis of which was in the principles of the Bible.” This is high praise from the accomplished editor of the New York Evening Express. In an appreciative notice of his venerated teacher, Dr. Lamson thus speaks of him as a preacher: ‘There were none of the graces of oratory about him. Nature had not formed him to exhibit them, and he was far enough from aiming to do it. The tones of his voice were so peculiar that the ear that once heard them would recognize them if heard the next time years afterwards and in the most distant land. His gestures were few and by no means varied. And yet, though it has been my privilege to listen to some of the most able and some of the most popular preachers in my own de- nomination and in others, I have seldom heard the man who could more closely confine my attention. I never heard a sermon from him which did not interest me. There was the greatest evidence of sincerity; the skeptics could not for a moment doubt that he was uttering the honest convictions of his own heart. There was nothing like dullness in his pulpit services. Though his voice was so little varied as to be monotonous, and the gestures were so few and so much alike, yet there was somehow imparted to the whole service an air of animation. ‘The style was chaste, simple, suited to the subject, and remarkable, I should think, for its purity. His discourses were often enlivened by striking illustrations drawn most frequently from the commonest relations of life, and yet so pre- sented as to fully sustain the dignity of the place and the subject. It is striking as showing the importance of this power of illustration in the preacher, that now, at this distance of time, I can recall some illustrations used by him, while every other portion of the sermons of which they are a part.is irrevocably lost.” From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart photos from findagrave