1774 Autograph Document Signed. by Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker - 1774

[Salem] Nathaniel Whitaker. Autograph Document Signed. Salem, Massachusetts. November 25, 1774. One sheet laid paper 16.5 x 17 cm. Unevenly cut on two edges. Has been folded. Notes in Greek on the verso. Very good.

Nathaniel Whitaker was an outspoken Presbyterian minister with a long and wide-ranging career. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1752. Between his ordination in 1755 and his death in 1795, Whitaker ministered to five different congregations. He was in Salem from 1769 to 1784, officiating in what was known as the Tabernacle church. Whitaker was an outspoken Whig, zealously supporting the cause of the colonists and during the Revolution he published several pamphlets on his political opinions. He also accompanied Reverend Samson Occom, an educated member of the Mohegan tribe to Scotland and England to raise funds for the establishment of an institution for the education and Christianization of the North American Indians. This document attests that Hannah, Wife of Vera? Johnson is a member in good standing of the Third Church of Christ in Salem and therefore recommended as a member of any church "which hold and teach the doctrine of Grace as exhibited in the well-known confession of faith…".