The New International Encyclopædia/Buckminster, Joseph Stevens

BUCKMINSTER, Joseph Stevens (1784-1812). An American Congregational clergyman. He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and was afterwards a teacher in Phillips Exeter Academy, where Daniel Webster was one of his pupils. In 1804 he was made pastor of Brattle Street Church, Boston; in 1808 he supervised the publication of Griesbach's New Testament (in Greek), and in 1811 he was appointed first lecturer on biblical criticism at Harvard. He belonged to the advanced literary Congregational school of his day, that, soon after his death, became Unitarian. He was a man of remarkable oratorical ability, and his sermons were finished literary productions. He was a member of the famous Anthology Club of Boston, and contributed to the Monthly Anthology. In 1839 his collected works were published in two volumes. Consult Lee, Memoirs of the Buckminsters (Boston, 1851).