Nathaniel Thayer

Nathaniel Thayer (July 11, 1769 – June 23, 1840) was a congregational Unitarian minister.

Early life Nathaniel Thayer was born in Hampton, New Hampshire to Ebenezer Thayer and Martha Olivia Cotton. His father was a pastor in Hampton for many years. His maternal grandfather was John Cotton of Newton, Massachusetts, who was the great-grandson of John Cotton.

Career Thayer graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, then Harvard College in 1789 and was ordained junior pastor of a Congregational meeting house in Lancaster, Massachusetts on October 9, 1793. In 1789 the town of Lancaster gave him land on Main street, just south of the church, to build a permanent residence. There he built a twelve-room home. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Harvard in 1817. The Lancaster congregation's fifth meeting house designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1816, was built during his tenure.

Respected for his "tact and sagacity", Thayer's involvement was often sought to settle ecclesiastical disputes across the state of Massachusetts. As a result, in his 47 years as a minister, he served on more than 150 church councils, and he frequently drew up the decisions.

Personal life On October 22, 1795, Thayer married Sarah Parker Toppan, daughter of Christopher Toppan and Sarah Parker, by whom he had eight children. Christopher Toppan Thayer (b. 1805) Nathaniel Thayer, Jr. (1808–1883), who married Cornelia Patterson Van Rensselaer (1823–1897), daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer IV.