I - From his Birth, and during his Preparation for the Ministry

Summary

[Mr. David Brainerd was born April 20, 1718, at Haddam, a town belonging to the county of Hartford, in the colony of Connecticut, New England. His father, who died when this his son was about nine years of age, was the worshipful Hezekiah Brainerd, Esquire, an assistant, or one of his Majesty's council for that colony, and the son of Daniel Brainerd, Esquire, a Justice of the Peace, and a deacon of the Church of Christ in Haddam. His mother was Mrs. Dorothy Hobart, daughter to the Rev. Jeremiah Hobart, who preached a while at Topsfield, and then removed to Hampstead on Long Island, and afterwards removed from Hampstead, by reason of numbers turning Quakers, and many others being so irreligious that they would do nothing towards the support of the ministry, and came and settled in the work of the ministry at Haddam; where he died in the 85th year of his age: of whom it is remarkable, that he went to the public worship in the forenoon, and died in his chair between meetings. And this reverend gentleman was son of the Rev. Peter Hobart, who was, first, minister of the Gospel at Hingham, in the county of Norfolk in England; and, by reason of the persecution of the Puritans, removed with his family to New England, and was settled in the ministry at Hingham in the Massachusetts. He had five sons, viz., Joshua, Jeremiah, Gershom, Japheth, and Nehemiah.