DEXTER

dexter, henry martyn (1821-1890), american clergyman and author, was born in plympton, massachusetts, on the 13th of august 1821. he graduated at yale in 1840 and at the andover theological seminary in 1844; was pastor of a congregational church in manchester, new hampshire, in 1844-1849, and of the berkeley street congregational church, boston, in 1849-1867; was an editor of the _congregationalist_ in 1851-1866, of the _congregational quarterly_ in 1859-1866, and of the _congregationalist_, with which the _recorder_ was merged, from 1867 until his death in new bedford, mass., on the 13th of november 1890. he was an authority on the history of congregationalism and was lecturer on that subject at the andover theological seminary in 1877-1879; he left his fine library on the puritans in america to yale university. among his works are: _congregationalism, what it is, whence it is, how it works, why it is better than any other form of church government, and its consequent demands_ (1865), _the church polity of the puritans the polity of the new testament_ (1870), _as to roger williams and his "banishment" from the massachusetts colony_ (1876), _congregationalism of the last three hundred years, as seen in its literature_ (1880), his most important work, _a handbook of congregationalism_ (1880), _the true story of john smyth, the "se-baptist"_ (1881), _common sense as to woman suffrage_ (1885), and many reprints of pamphlets bearing on early church history in new england, especially baptist controversies. his _the england and holland of the pilgrims_ was completed by his son, morton dexter (b. 1846), and published in 1905.