1798–1838

Introduction

Born: Ju­ly 6, 1798, Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land.

Died: May 9, 1838, New­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, of small­pox.

Buried: New­ton Theo­lo­gic­al In­sti­tute, New­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts. His grave was in the rear of Stur­te­vant Hall.

Biography

His fa­ther died when he was 12 years old, so Knowles was ap­pren­ticed to a print­er, where he be­came tho­rough­ly ac­quaint­ed with print­ing, as well as writ­ing for the press. At age 21, he be­came co-ed­it­or of The Rhode Is­land Am­eri­can.

In March 1820, Knowles was bap­tized by Dr. Ga­no, pas­tor of the First Bap­tist Church in Pro­vi­dence. The fol­low­ing au­tumn, he was li­censed by the church and en­tered the Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­vania, where Dr. Will­iam Staugh­ton and Ir­ah Chase were the pro­fess­ors.

In 1822, the col­lege merged with Co­lum­bi­an Col­lege in Wash­ing­ton, DC, and Knowles fol­lowed his in­struct­ors there. While there, he ed­it­ed a week­ly, The Co­lum­bi­an Star.

After gra­du­at­ing in 1824, Knowles tu­tored at the col­lege, but the next au­tumn, he re­ceived a call to the Se­cond Bap­tist Church in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts, where he be­came its se­cond pas­tor. He was or­dained De­cem­ber 8, 1825.

He re­mained in Bos­ton se­ven years, then had to re­sign due to ill health. He be­came a Pro­fess­or of Pas­tor­al Du­ties and Sac­red Rhe­tor­ic at the New­ton Theo­lo­gic­al In­sti­tute in 1832.

After his health im­proved, he took ov­er ed­it­or­ship of The Chris­tian Re­view. Up­on re­turn­ing from a vi­sit to New York, he con­tract­ed small­pox, which led to his death.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Knowles (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),