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Rev Ebenezer Prime

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Rev Ebenezer Prime

Birth
Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA
Death
25 Sep 1779 (aged 79)
Huntington, Suffolk County, New York, USA
Burial
Huntington, Suffolk County, New York, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
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Son of James and Sarah Prime of Litchfield, Connecticut, husband of Margaret Sylvester, father of Ebenezer and Margaret Prime, husband of Hannah Platt, with whom he had two children; Ebenezer and Experience Prime and husband of Experience Youngs with whom he had three children; Mary, Sarah and Benjamin Youngs Prime.

Clergymen, born in Milford, Connecticut, 21 July, 1700; died in Huntington, L. I., 25 September, 1779. He was the grandson of James, who, with his brother, Mark Prime, came from England to escape religious persecution about 1638. Ebenezer was graduated at Yale in 1718, studied divinity, and the following year was called to Huntington, L. I., where he became an assistant to Reverend Eliphalet Jones. On 5 June, 1723, he was ordained pastor of the same church, which office he continued to hold until his death. A register of the sermons that he preached, with texts, dates, and places of delivery, shows that he prepared more than 3,000, many of which are still preserved. Although he was educated as a Congregationalist, in 1747 his own church and the others in the county of Suffolk formed themselves into a presbytery and adopted the Presbyterian form of government, Mr. Prime being chosen the first moderator. In the war of the Revolution Mr. Prime's church was turned into a military depot by the British, and the pulpit and pews were burnt for fuel. The parsonage was occupied by troops: the pastor's valuable library was used for lighting fires, and otherwise mutilated. Driven from home in his seventy-seventh year, an object of special hostility on account of his decided patriotic opinions, he retired to a quiet part of the parish and preached in private houses, or wherever he could gather his people together. Toward the close of the war Colonel Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count Rumford, was ordered to occupy the village. He tore down the church, and used the materials in building barracks and block-houses in the graveyard. Ascertaining where the venerable pastor lay buried, he directed that his own tent should be pitched at the head of the grave, that, as he expressed it, he might have the satisfaction of treading on the "d old rebel "every time he entered and left it. Mr. Prime is described by a contemporary as "a man of sterling character, of powerful intellect, who possessed the reputation of an able and faithful divine." His published discourses include "The Pastor at Large Vindicated" and "The Divine Institution of Preaching the Gospel Considered " (New York, 1758), and "The Importance of the Divine Presence with the Armies of God's People in their Martial Enterprises" (1759). He also published a sermon, delivered in 1754, on " Ordination to the Gospel Ministry," regarding which he held peculiar views.

-Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography-

Buried on October 2, 1779
Son of James and Sarah Prime of Litchfield, Connecticut, husband of Margaret Sylvester, father of Ebenezer and Margaret Prime, husband of Hannah Platt, with whom he had two children; Ebenezer and Experience Prime and husband of Experience Youngs with whom he had three children; Mary, Sarah and Benjamin Youngs Prime.

Clergymen, born in Milford, Connecticut, 21 July, 1700; died in Huntington, L. I., 25 September, 1779. He was the grandson of James, who, with his brother, Mark Prime, came from England to escape religious persecution about 1638. Ebenezer was graduated at Yale in 1718, studied divinity, and the following year was called to Huntington, L. I., where he became an assistant to Reverend Eliphalet Jones. On 5 June, 1723, he was ordained pastor of the same church, which office he continued to hold until his death. A register of the sermons that he preached, with texts, dates, and places of delivery, shows that he prepared more than 3,000, many of which are still preserved. Although he was educated as a Congregationalist, in 1747 his own church and the others in the county of Suffolk formed themselves into a presbytery and adopted the Presbyterian form of government, Mr. Prime being chosen the first moderator. In the war of the Revolution Mr. Prime's church was turned into a military depot by the British, and the pulpit and pews were burnt for fuel. The parsonage was occupied by troops: the pastor's valuable library was used for lighting fires, and otherwise mutilated. Driven from home in his seventy-seventh year, an object of special hostility on account of his decided patriotic opinions, he retired to a quiet part of the parish and preached in private houses, or wherever he could gather his people together. Toward the close of the war Colonel Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count Rumford, was ordered to occupy the village. He tore down the church, and used the materials in building barracks and block-houses in the graveyard. Ascertaining where the venerable pastor lay buried, he directed that his own tent should be pitched at the head of the grave, that, as he expressed it, he might have the satisfaction of treading on the "d old rebel "every time he entered and left it. Mr. Prime is described by a contemporary as "a man of sterling character, of powerful intellect, who possessed the reputation of an able and faithful divine." His published discourses include "The Pastor at Large Vindicated" and "The Divine Institution of Preaching the Gospel Considered " (New York, 1758), and "The Importance of the Divine Presence with the Armies of God's People in their Martial Enterprises" (1759). He also published a sermon, delivered in 1754, on " Ordination to the Gospel Ministry," regarding which he held peculiar views.

-Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography-

Buried on October 2, 1779

Inscription

In memory of the Rev'd Ebenezer Prime
obt. Sept. 25, 1779
in 79th year

Gravesite Details

The headstone has been redone and lies directly behind the older one.



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  • Created by: Aislin
  • Added: Sep 19, 2008
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29922938/ebenezer-prime: accessed ), memorial page for Rev Ebenezer Prime (21 Jul 1700–25 Sep 1779), Find a Grave Memorial ID 29922938, citing Old Burying Hill Cemetery, Huntington, Suffolk County, New York, USA; Maintained by Aislin (contributor 46535342).