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Caleb Rich
b.1 Aug 1750 Sutton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
d.18 Oct 1821 New Haven, Addison, Vermont, United States
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m. 21 Dec 1737
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m. 22 Jan 1778
Facts and Events
From: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=83152&id=I06680 Caleb had a common school education. His father being a Baptist and his mother an adherent of the "standing order," he probably became accustomed to hearing discussions on religious questions in his boyhood. He had a speculative and inquiring mind, and appears, very readily accepted the views of the opposers of orthodoxy of the day in general, although on special points of doctrine he held views peculiar to himself. He was nominally a Baptist, and retained his connection with that demonination until after he moved to Warwick at about the age of 21. Then his peculiar notions became so marked that he and his brother Nathaniel were brought before the church "for errors in doctrine," and on a charge that was set aside. Soon after, in 1773, these brothers with one or two associates formed a new society at Warwick, and Caleb becae the minister. In 1775 at the "Lexington alarm," he marched as a minuteman under Captain Wright for Cambridge, and after serving a few weeks obtained a furlough and visited relatives at Sutton and Oxford. His friends would hear him explain his new doctrines, and therefore from house to house in Sutton, Oxford, Charlton, Thompson and Douglas he opened and explained his theories, until on his return to camp he says, "the brethren, numbered forty or fifty." On his return to Warwick he renewed his labors with increased zeal. There his ordination as a minister occurred in 1781. After 30 years at Warwick he moved to Shoreham, Vt., and later to New Haven, Vt., in which place and vicinity he continued to preach as his health permitted. He was familiar with the scriptures, delighted in argument on doctrinal subjects and was more than an ordinary man as a thinker, but as a preacher he did not excel. Rev. W.S. Balch further says of him, "He was the real founder of American Universalism." References
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