Samuel Newell

Samuel Newell (1784–1821) was an American missionary and one of the pioneers of American foreign missions. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in India and Ceylon, where he founded the first American Ceylon Mission station.

Biography The youngest of nine children, Newell was born to Ebenezer and Catherine Newell on 24 July 1784 in Durham, Maine. He lost his mother when he was three, and his father when he was fourteen years old. At the age of fourteen Newell went to Portland, and on sight-seeing tour he accepted an offer of a captain of a vessel that lay in the harbor; consequently, he moved to Boston. In Boston, he studied at Roxbury Grammar School and entered Harvard College in 1803. During his time in college, Newell was influenced by the preaching of Dr. Stillman, pastor of the first Baptist church in Boston. In October 1804, he became a member of the First Congregational Church in Roxbury, under the ministry of Dr. Porter.

Newell spent most of his missionary service in evangelism, establishing schools, and publishing books and Christian literature. He visited cholera victims at Tannah, and died suddenly from that disease on May 30, 1821.

Other works Memoirs of Mrs. Harriet Newell,: Wife of the Rev. Samuel Newell, Missionary to India, who Died at the Isle of France, Nov. 30, 1812, Aged 19 Years.