Introduction

Biography

Samuel was the grand­son of hym­nist Jo­seph Sten­nett.

The fol­low­ing bi­o­graphy ap­peared in Se­venth Day Bap­tists in Eur­ope and Am­er­ica: His­to­ri­cal Pa­pers Writ­ten in Com­mem­o­ra­tion of the One Hun­dredth An­ni­ver­sa­ry of the Or­gan­i­z­ation of the Se­venth Day Bap­tist Ge­ne­ral Con­fer­ence Cel­e­brat­ed at Ash­a­way, [Rhode Is­land], Aug. 20–25, 1902. Vol. 1, pp. 11–18.

Dr. Sam­uel Stennett was born in Exe­ter, in 1727. He was con­vert­ed and was bap­tized when young. Like his fa­ther he was a man of su­per­i­or tale­nts and great er­u­di­tion. Iv­i­mey says:- His pro­fi­cien­cy in Greek, La­tin and Or­i­en­tal tongues and ex­ten­sive ac­quaint­ance with sac­red li­te­ra­ture, are so abun­dant­ly dis­played in his val­u­a­ble works that they can­not fail to es­tab­lish his re­pu­ta­tion for learn­ing and gen­i­us.

He had been ac­cus­tomed to move in the so­cie­ty of per­sons of re­fine­ment; and on en­ter­ing up­on his pas­tor­al du­ties in Lon­don he was re­mark­able for the ease and sua­vi­ty of his man­ners, for the good breed­ing, the pol­ished lan­guage, and the grace­ful ways of the true gen­tle­man.

He was fre­quent­ly in com­pa­ny with per­sons en­joy­ing the high­est so­cial dis­tinc­tion and in such si­tu­a­tions as gave him an op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­mend Bap­tists and aid Dis­sent­ers of all de­nom­in­ations.

In 1763 he was made a Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty by King’s Col­lege, Aber­deen. Among the no­ble men who wait­ed up­on his min­is­try and loved him with the af­fec­tion of a friend was John How­ard, the phi­lan­thro­pist. In a let­ter from Smyr­na, writ­ten to Dr. Sten­nett Au­gust 11, 1786, Mr. How­ard says:- I bless God for your min­is­try; I pray God to re­ward you a thou­sand fold. My friend, you have an hon­or­a­ble work; ma­ny seals you have to your min­is­try.

He min­is­tered to the Lit­tle Wild street church as his fa­ther’s as­sist­ant for ten years; and as its pas­tor, af­ter his fa­ther’s death, for thir­ty-se­ven years. The meet­ing house was re­built dur­ing his min­is­try.

His fa­ther, Jo­seph Sten­nett, D. D.; his grand­fa­ther, Jo­seph Sten­nett; his great-grand­fa­ther, Ed­ward Sten­nett; his bro­ther, Jo­seph, and his son, Jo­seph, were all Bap­tist min­is­ters—and Sab­bath-keep­ers.

Dr. Sam­uel Sten­nett was a hymn writ­er of note. He wrote the beau­ti­ful and well known hymn, Ma­jes­tic sweet­ness sits en­throned up­on the Sav­iour’s brow; al­so On Jor­dan’s stormy banks I stand.

Most of his works were re­print­ed in 1784 in three oc­ta­vo vol­u­mes. In 1772 he pub­lished a work en­ti­tled Re­marks on the Chris­tian Min­is­ter’s Rea­sons for Ad­min­is­ter­ing Bap­tism by Sprink­ling. In 1775, An An­swer to the Chris­tian Min­is­ter’s Rea­sons for Bap­tiz­ing In­fants.

He was al­so au­thor of pro­duc­tions treat­ing of ap­peals to Par­lia­ment by Pro­test­ant Dis­sent­ers for re­lief from per­se­cut­ing en­act­ments.