Manasseh Cutler

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Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War and later a Congress representative.

Cutler was born in Killingly, Connecticut. In 1765, he graduated from Yale College and after being a school teacher and a merchant – and occasionally appearing in court as a lawyer – he decided to enter the ministry. From 1771 until his death, he was pastor of the Congregational church in what was the parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts until 1793, now Hamilton.

For a few months in 1776, he was chaplain to the 11th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Ebenezer Francis, raised for the defence of Boston. In 1778, he became chaplain to General Jonathan Titcomb's brigade and took part in General John Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island. Soon after his return from this expedition he trained in medicine to supplement the scanty income of a minister. In 1782, he established a private boarding school, directing it for nearly a quarter of a century.

In 1786, Cutler became interested in the settlement of western lands. The following year, as agent of the Ohio Company of Associates that he had been involved in creating, he organized a contract with Congress whereby his associates (former soldiers of the Revolutionary War) might purchase one and a half million acres (six thousand square kilometers) of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River with their certificates of indebtedness. Cutler also took a leading part in drafting the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, which was finally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate Nathan Dane. From 1801 to 1805, Cutler was a Federalist representative in Congress. He died in 1823 at Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Cutler was one of the early members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Besides being proficient in the theology, law and medicine of his day, he conducted painstaking astronomical and meteorological investigations and was one of the first Americans to conduct significant botanical research. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale University in 1789.

[edit] References

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Preceded by Ebenezer Mattoon

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district March 4, 1801 – March 3, 1805

Succeeded by Leonard White