Call Number:

Ms. Codex 1749

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

0.08 linear feet (1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Henry Ward notes on S.M. Woodbridge's lectures on church history, 1865-1867, Ms. Codex 1749, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1865-1867 (inclusive)

Creator:

Ward, Henry

Form:

Lecture notes

Abstract:

Reverend S. M. Woodbridge (1819-1905) was an American clergyman, theologian, author and professor who taught Reverend Henry Ward at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. These notes were taken by Ward during Woodbridge's lectures on church history.

Reverend S. M. Woodbridge was born Samuel Merrill Woodbridge in Massachusetts to Reverend Sylvester and Elizabeth (Gould) Woodbridge in 1819. He graduated from New York University with an A.B. in 1838 and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary with an M.A. in 1841. He served as a pastor of the South Reformed Dutch Church in Brooklyn from 1841 to 1849; of the Second Reformed Church of Coxsackie, New York from 1849 to 1852; and of the Second Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey from 1852 to 1857. In 1857, he began his teaching career of 44 years as a professor of ecclesiastical history and church government at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, serving that institution also as dean and president of faculty from 1883 until his retirement in 1901. He was also a professor of metaphysics and the philosophy of the human mind at Rutgers College from 1857 to 1964. He authored three books and published several sermons and lectures. He died in New Brunswick in 1905.

Reverend Henry Ward was a student of Woodbridge's at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, who graduated in 1867 and was ordained the same year by the Classis of Poughkeepsie. It is possible that he served as a pastor in New Hackensack in New York and in Closter in New Jersey.

Works cited:

New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Fortieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Rev. S.M. Woodbridge, 1898, accessed March 9, 2016.

New York University. General Alumni Catalogue of New York University, 1833-1905, accessed March 9, 2016.

This collection consists of one volume of handwritten notes taken by Reverend Henry Ward when he was a student of Reverend S.M. Woodbridge at the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church in North America in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The first portion of the volume contains lectures on church history and covers topics including but not limited to monasticism, persecution, crusades, philosophy, Gnosticism, the History of doctrines, church architecture, church government, and the history of worship. These notes date from November 1865 to March 19, 1866.

Writing in the volume continues on November 21, 1866, possibly documenting a course called "From Reformation." From here until the end of the volume, lectures are numbered, beginning with Lecture XLIII and ending with Lecture LI. The final page of writing includes the note: "Finis--March 19, 1867."