Jonathan Leavitt (minister)

Rev. Jonathan Leavitt (1731–1802) was an early New England Congregational minister, born in Connecticut, and subsequently the pastor of churches in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, both of which dismissed him from his posts. Several of Rev. Leavitt's descendants became among the most noted abolitionists of their day, even though he himself was dismissed from one pastorate for allegedly abusing his runaway slave, and from another for his Loyalist sentiments.

Jonathan Leavitt was born on January 11, 1731, in Suffield, Massachusetts, the son of Lieutenant Joshua Leavitt and his wife Mary Thomas (Winchell) Leavitt. Jonathan Leavitt was one of three children of Lieut. Leavitt and his second wife. The family was among the earliest settlers of Suffield, and were prosperous, his father Lieut. Leavitt a well-to-do farmer and officeholder. But before Rev. Leavitt was two years old, his father, a brother and a sister all perished of disease within three days of each other. Nevertheless, Rev. Leavitt and two of his brothers attended Yale College. His sister Jemima Leavitt married Capt. David Ellsworth, and became mother of Chief Justice of the United States and Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth.

Jonathan Leavitt graduated from Yale College in 1758 and afterwards was ordained minister of Walpole, New Hampshire, on May 27, 1761. On the occasion of his ordination, Rev. Leavitt's brother Rev. Freegrace Leavitt, a fellow Congregationalist minister, preached the installation sermon – at a local home as Walpole's meeting house had yet to be built.

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