Home                 Return to People Quiz                                            Contact Salem Focus at  salemfocus@comcast.net

         Reverend William Bentley    1759-1819

         See photo 24:

          William Bentley graduated from Harvard in 1777. He spent a few years as a school teacher before returning to Harvard to tutor

          Latin and Greek. In 1783 he went to Salem, where he was ordained and became minister of the East Church, also known as the

          Second Congregational Church. While pastor he mastered more than 20 languages and acquired a personal library of more than

          4,000 books. As a minister he stressed good works rather than rigid dogma. He wrote twice-weekly columns for Salem newspapers

          on such issues as slavery, the French Revolution and industrialization. He was recognized by all as having Jeffersonian views in a

           predominantly Federalist town. He numbered among his friends such luminaries as Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison.

          When the University of Virginia was founded, Bentley declined to accept Jefferson's offer to make him head of the new institution.