Henry Ware

Ware, Henry, 1764-1845, American clergyman, instrumental in the founding of Unitarianism in the United States, b. Sherborn, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1785. As pastor (1787-1805) of the First Church, Hingham, Mass., he became known for his liberal inclinations. His appointment in 1805 as Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard aroused opposition in the orthodox division of the Congregational churches. The questions brought into prominence by his appointment helped to hasten the separation of the Unitarians from the Congregationalists and change their organization into an independent denomination. Later, in an interchange of views with Dr. Leonard Woods, Ware wrote his Letters to Trinitarians and Calvinists (1820) and other controversial works. In 1816 he took up his work as professor of theology in the newly founded Harvard Divinity School. In 1842 he published some of his lectures under the title An Inquiry into the Foundation, Evidences, and Truths of Religion. His son Henry Ware, 1794-1843, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1812, was pastor (1817-30) of the Second Unitarian Church, Boston, and was professor in the Harvard divinity school until 1842. He was an editor (1819-22) of the first organ of Unitarianism, the Christian Disciple, and one of the leaders in the development of the denomination.