Samuel Willard letters to family members

Samuel Willard, minister, educator, and musician, was born on April 18, 1775* in Petersham, Massachusetts, the seventh child of eleven children, to Deacon William Willard and Katherine (sometimes spelled “Katharine” or “Catharine”) Wilder Willard. He spent the early years of his young adulthood helping with labors on the family farm, until resuming his studies with a grammar schoolmaster in 1797, where he memorized Latin grammar. In 1798, he taught at a district school in Lancaster, Massachusetts and studied with Reverend Nathaniel Thayer, in order preparation for Harvard’s entrance examinations. Willard entered Harvard in July 1799, and was one of the first two of his class to be admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. During his sophomore and junior years, he lived with his uncle Harvard president Joseph Willard's house in exchange for tutoring his cousin Sheafe. In the spring of his junior year, Willard suffered a severe attack of measles, which weakened both of his eyes and lead to his eventual blindness.

Following his graduation from Harvard College in 1803, Willard accepted a teaching position at Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. In September 1804, he went to Hampton, New Hampshire to study theology with Revered Jesse Appleton. After a month of studying with Appleton, Willard accepted an invitation to tutor at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. He returned to Harvard in August 1805 to informally study theology and earn money as a proctor. He began preaching in Hingham, Massachusetts in March 1806, and for the remainder of the year, preached in Marlboro, Haverhill, Lexington, Boston, and Montague. In January 1807, he moved to Andover in hopes of finding employment, but left for Deerfield in March of that year, to become the fifth minister of Deerfield and the first Unitarian in the Pioneer Valley. Upon his arrival in Deerfield, he established a singing school for his parishioners. In 1808, Willard’s Deerfield Collection of Sacred Music was published, which included musical grammar and his directions for singing the hymns. He wrote a total of 518 hymns with musical directions. On May 30, 1808, Willard married Susan Barker; they had three children.

In 1825, Willard became the School Superintendent of Deerfield and wrote a series of reader booklets for the town’s schoolchildren. Later in his life, he became interested in abolitionist causes, and in 1850, spoke publicly against the Fugitive Slave Act. Willard died on October 8, 1859, in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

*Note: Although some sources indicate that Samuel Willard was born in 1776, the Vital Records of Petersham, Massachusetts verify that he was, in fact, born in 1775.