West, Samuel (1), D.D.
an American Unitarian minister, was born at Yarmouth, Mass.. March 3, 1730 (O. S.). He labored on the farm until he was twenty years of age; graduated at Harvard College in 1754; was ordained minister of a part of Dartmouth (now New Bedford and Fair Haven) June 3, 1761; was a zealous patriot during the American Revolution, encouraging the people in public addresses, entering the army as chaplain, and adding all the weight of his great learning to the American cause; withdrew from his ministerial labors in June, 1803; and died at the house of his son in Tiverton, R. I., Sept. 24, 1807. He was a man of extraordinary physical and mental powers, and was esteemed the most learned man of his time in New England. He was a vigorous preacher, and was noted for the complete mastery of his subject. He was the author of Essays on Liberty and Necessity (1793 and 1795, 2 pts.), and several single Sermons preached on various occasions. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 8:37 sq.