Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Symmes, Zechariah

SYMMES, Zechariah, clergyman, b. in Canterbury, England, 5 April, 1599 ; d. in Charlestown, Mass., 4 Feb., 1671. He came from England in 1634, and was ordained as teacher in the church at Charlestown, Mass., on 22 Dec. of that year, succeeding Thomas James as pastor when the latter was dismissed on 11 March, 1636. During his ministry the Antinomian controversy culminated in the banishment of John Wheelwright and the dismissal of his adherents from the church. See "The Symmes Memorial," containing a sketch of his life and a genealogy, by John Adams Vinton (Boston, 1873). — His grandson, Thomas, clergyman, b. in Bradford, Mass., 1 Feb., 1678; d. 6 Oct., 1725, was graduated at Harvard in 1698, and was minister of Boxford from December, 1702, till 1708, when he succeeded his father, Zechariah, as second minister at Bradford. He possessed a strong mind and much learning, and, besides occasional sermons, published "Joco-Serious Dialogue on Singing" (1723); and "Historical Memoirs of the Fight at Piggwacket, 9 May, 1725," with a sermon on the death of Capt. John Lovewell (1725 ; republished with notes by Nathaniel Bouton, Concord, N. H., 1861). See an account of his life by Rev. John Brown, to which is appended his advice to his children and to the members of his church (1726).