The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barnard, John

​BARNARD, John, clergyman, was born in Boston, Mass., Nov. 6, 1681. His parents caused him to be baptized on the day of his birth and educated him for the ministry. He entered Harvard college in July, 1696, taking his degree in 1700. He studied divinity during his college course, and preached his first sermon in 1699. He began pastoral work as assistant to Dr. Coleman in Boston. In the spring of 1707 Governor Dudley appointed him chaplain of one of the regiments sent to take Port Royal, Nova Scotia, then held by the French. In 1709 he sailed for Barbadoes and London, and while in England had several advantageous proposals to remain, including a chaplaincy under Lord Wharton, which he did not accept, as he could not subscribe to the thirty-nine articles of the established church. Returning to America he preached from place to place in Massachusetts, but did not settle until 1714, when he accepted a call to Marblehead. He was afterwards invited to become pastor at the old North church in Boston, but remained at Marblehead until his death. In 1742, during the theological controversy throughout the churches of New England, he declared himself as not in sympathy with Whitefield's extreme Calvinism, and he is credited with being an original Trinitarian-Congregationalist. Mr. Barnard was a man of scholarly attainments, of eloquence and magnetism, and of purity and beauty of character. Among his published writings are: "A History of the Strange Adventures of Philip Ashton" (1725); "A Version of the Psalms" (1752), and many sermons and addresses. He died at Marblehead, Mass., Jan. 24, 1770.