Author: Rich, Elisha
Biography:
RICH, Elisha (1740-1812: ancestry.com)
The son of Mary (Davis) and Elisha Rich, he was born in Sutton MA. Though a blacksmith by trade, he became a confident preacher and writer. He married Phebe Batchelder in Worcester MA about 1766; they had at least three children, one of whom died in infancy. He was ordained the first pastor of a Baptist congregation in Chelmsford MA in 1774, where he remained for three or four years. During that time he published a pamphlet about the number of the beast, a sermon on ecclesiastical liberty, four broadside poems on political events, and his one volume of Poetical Dialogues--all using the same local printer, Nathaniel Coverley. After leaving Chelmsford for Vermont, he appears never to have published again. The federal census shows him resident in Pittsford VT in 1790 and 1800, then in Wellfleet MA in 1810. He died in Burlington PA and is buried there. (ancestry.com 27 Jul. 2020; findmypast.com 27 Jul. 2020; P. N. Green, History of Chelmsford [1820])