Samuel Webber

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Samuel Webber (1759 – July 17, 1810) was an American Congregational clergyman, mathematician, academic, and the 13th president of Harvard University from 1806 until his death in 1810.

Biography

Webber was born in Byfield, Massachusetts, in 1759.<ref name=Cyclopaedia>Template:Cite book</ref> He was educated at Dummer Academy (now known as The Governor's Academy) and Harvard College (B.A., 1784; M.A., 1787) where he distinguished himself in mathematics. He was a member of the Hasty Pudding. Webber was ordained as Congregational minister in 1787 and two years later became Hollis Professor of Mathematick and Natural Philosophy at Harvard.<ref name=Quin1915>Template:Cite book</ref> He served in the commission that drew the boundaries, later recognized by the Treaty of Paris, between the new United States of America and the surrounding British provinces. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1789<ref name=AAAS>Template:Cite web</ref> and also served as vice-president of the Academy. He authored System of Mathematics, which for many years served as the only textbook on the subject in New England.<ref name="appletons">Template:Cite Appletons'</ref>

Webber was appointed president of Harvard in 1806. That same year he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from that institution. He led Harvard until his death in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 17, 1810.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>

Family

Webber's son, Samuel Jr., married Anna Winslow Green, a granddaughter of David Mathews, Loyalist Mayor of New York City under the British during the American Revolution. Webber's son, also named Samuel (September 15, 1797 Cambridge, Massachusetts – December 5, 1880 Charlestown, New Hampshire), was a distinguished physician, chemist and author.<ref name="appletons"/>

Works

• “Introduction” to Jedidiah Morse, American Universal Geography, 1796 (revision)
• System of Mathematics, (2 vols.), 1801
• Eulogy on President Willard, 1804