Samuel Newell (1784–1821) was an American missionary and one of the pioneers ofAmerican foreign missions. He served with theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions inIndia andCeylon, where he founded the first AmericanCeylon Mission station.[1][2][3]
The youngest of nine children, Newell was born to Ebenezer and Catherine Newell on 24 July 1784 inDurham,Maine. He lost his mother when he was three, and his father when he was fourteen years old. At the age of fourteen Newell went toPortland, and on sight-seeing tour he accepted an offer of a captain of a vessel that lay in the harbor; consequently, he moved toBoston. In Boston, he studied atRoxburyGrammar School and enteredHarvard College in 1803. During his time in college, Newell was influenced by the preaching of Dr. Stillman,pastor of the firstBaptist church in Boston. In October 1804, he became a member of theFirst Congregational Church in Roxbury, under theministry of Dr. Porter.[1][2][3]
Newell graduated from Harvard College in 1807 and started working as an assistant teacher at the Grammar School in Roxbury; later, he took charge of the Academy atLynn. Having decided to devote himself to the ministry, he enteredAndover Theological Seminary in 1809. While at Andover Seminary, he joined the group ofChristian students who were eager to undertake foreign missionary work. After graduating from theseminary in 1810, he preached for a brief period atRowley, nearNewburyport. In 1810 Newell andSamuel Mills,Adoniram Judson,Gordon Hall,Samuel Nott, andLuther Rice offered themselves toCongregationalclergy ofMassachusetts as missionaries; subsequently theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formed in 1812.[1][2][3]
Newell later studiedmedicine while awaiting passage to India, and was ordained along with Judson, Mills, Hall, Nott, and Rice in February 1812, by the ABCFM atSalem, Massachusetts. In February 1812, he marriedHarriet Atwood, who had already joined Congregational church in 1809 and had developed interest in missions through Newell's courtship. Newell, Nott, Judson and their wives, along with Hall and Rice, sailed to India in February 1812 and arrivedCalcutta in June 1812.[1][2][3] Upon their arrival in Calcutta they were denied residence byBritishEast India Company and were asked to leave; as a result Samuel and Harriet took a ship toMauritius. On the long and stormy voyage, Harriet gave birth to a child that died soon after birth and was buried at sea. Harriet died soon after landing, becoming the first American to die in foreign mission service.[1][2][3]
Newell later sailed to Ceylon where he spent a year preaching and investigating mission opportunities. Upon learning that Hall and Nott had succeeded in establishing the first foreign mission inBombay, he joined them in 1814.[1][2][3]
On March 26, 1818, he married Philomela Thurston, an American missionary who had arrived in Bombay a short time earlier. The couple's only child, born the following year, was named after Newell's first wife: Harriet Atwood Newell.[4]
Newell spent most of his missionary service inevangelism, establishing schools, and publishing books andChristian literature. He visitedcholera victims atTannah, and died suddenly from that disease on May 30, 1821.[1][2][3]
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Samuel Newell and Gordon Hall published an elaborate and widely circulated plan for theevangelization of the world entitledThe Conversion of the World, or the Claims of the Six Hundred Millions, and the Ability and Duty of the Churches in 1818. He published his sermonA Sermon Preached at Haverhill (Massachusetts) in Remembrance of Mrs. Herriot Newell in 1814.[1][2][3][5]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Samuel Newell.
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