Thaddeus Mason Harris

Harris, Thaddeus Mason. (1768--April 4, 1842, Dorchester, Massachusetts). Unitarian. Early left fatherless, he lived with several farming and clerical families before entering Harvard; after graduating in 1787, he acted as college librarian 1791-1793 before ministering to Dorchester's First [Unitarian] Church until he retirement in 1836. His first hymns were written for the children of the Boston Female Asylum; a pamphlet published in 1801 became the basis of Hymns for the Lord's Supper, original and selected (1820, 1821), which included hymns by John Pierpont and Samuel Gilman, which have fallen out of use.

--Henry Wilder Foote, rev. Hugh D. McKellar, DNAH Archives