This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 18

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2003 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issues its decision in the case of Goodridge vs. the Department of Public Health of Massachusetts. The court held that under the Constitution of Massachusetts, it is illegal to deny to people of the same gender the same marriage rights granted to people of different genders. The primary plaintiffs were Hillary and Julie Goodridge. Of the 14 plantiffs, seven were Unitarian Universalists, including Hillary Goodridge.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 17

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The coat of arms of Rakow, Poland

1599 – John Saieninius, the ruler of Krakow, Poland, converted from Calvinism to Socinianism during debates at Rakow and became a patron of Socinian churches and an important benefactor of the movement. He established a Unitarian congregation and his son James established a Unitarian seminary and printing office to aid the grown of Unitarianism. Rakow became the center of the Polish Unitarian community, and its members became known as Rakovians. Read more about the church in Poland here at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 16

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1611 – John Tyscovicius of Poland was executed because he would not take an oath on the Trinity but only to God. His tongue was plucked out for the crime of blasphemy, after which he was beheaded, his hands and feet cut off, and his body publicly burned. Although his village council exonerated Tyscovicius on the same charges, Queen Constantia, wife of Sigismund III, overruled their verdict. Read more about the church in Poland here at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 15

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1814 – Frances Anna Maria Russell was born. She became a Unitarian at age 70. Her grandson was the famous philosopher Lord Bertrand Russell and her husband was Lord John Russell. She was a friend to many Unitarian literary figures, including Charles Dickens, James Russell Lowell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She helped organize the Unitarian church in Richmond, Surrey, England.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 14

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1797 – Sir Charles Lyell was born in Kinnordy, Forfarshire, England. He was a lawyer who became an eminent geologist and antrhopologist. Lyell worked to reconcile science and religion. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1848. Lyell worshiped at Little Portland Street Chapel (Unitarian) in London. On his trips to America, he became acquainted with New England Unitarians, and attended Unitarian churches in America.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 13

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1813 – Henry Solly was born in London. Reared Unitarian, he was a member of the first class at University College in London that would receive Unitarians. He became minister at the Unitarian chapel at Yeovil, Somerset, England, He founded the Working Men’s Clubs, the Charity Organisation Society, and the Garden City movement. His main concerns were for the welfare of working men and the poor, universal suffrage, education, temperance, and the abolition of slavery.

 

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 12

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The New North Church, Boston (flickr.com)

1852 – Francis Parkman Sr., a noted Unitarian scholar, died in Boston at age 64. He studied theology under William Ellery Channing and was minister of New North Church in Boston for 40 years. His son, also named Francis Parkman, became a noted American historian.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 11

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1744 – Abigail Smith Adams was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She was the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. One of the most distinguished and influential first ladies in U.S. history, she advised her husband on many issues and worked for social justice and abolition of slavery. A devoted Unitarian, Adams was noted for her serene religiosity. Read more about Abigail Smith Adams at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 10

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1801 – Samuel Gridley Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He founded the New England Asylum for the Blind in 1832, renamed the Perkins Institution. Howe also wrote textbooks for teaching the blind, and the principles he drew up for Massachusetts became a national model. He worked for prison reform and founded the abolitionist journal Commonwealth with his wife, Julia Ward Howe. Howe was a member of a church in Boston founded by Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke.

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This Day in Unitarian Universalist History November 9

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1805 – Harriot Kezia Hunt, a life-long Universalist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Widely known as the first woman doctor, she was a pioneer in medical practice and a strong advocate of abolition, women’s rights, and public health education. She published her autobiography, Glances and Glimpses, in 1856.

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