Rash's Surname Index
Notes for William Henry FURNESS
FURNESS, William Henry, clergyman, was born in Boston, Mass., April 20, 1802; son of William and Rebekah (Thwing) Furness; grandson of John and Ann (Hurd) Furness; and a descendant from Captain Clapp who emigrated from England in 1629. He was graduated from Harvard in 1820, from the Harvard divinity school in 1823, and entered the Unitarian ministry. He was pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian church in Philadelphia, 1825-75. He retired from the ministry in 1875 and thereafter lived in literary ease. He was editor of the Diadem, 1845-48, and was an active and fearless advocate of anti-slavery. In January, 1895, he gave in an address to his former congregation in Philadelphia, an interesting resumé of his recollections of seventy years. He was married, Aug. 24, 1825, to Annis Pulling Jenks, granddaughter of Major Pulling, the friend of Paul Revere. Of their children, William Henry became a portrait painter; Horace Howard of Wallingford, Pa., became known as the editor of a New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, whose wife, Helen Kate (Rogers) published a "Concordance of Shakespeare's Poems" (1873); Frank became a prominent architect in Philadelphia, and their only daughter, Mrs. Annis Lee Wister, translated many popular novels from the German. Dr. Furness was elected a member of the Philosophical society, April 17, 1840. He received the degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1847. His published works include: Remarks on the Four Gospels (1836); Jesus and His Biographers (1838); Domestic Worship (1839); A History of Jesus (1850); Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth (1859); The Veil Partly Lifted (1864); Schenkel's Character of Jesus Portrayed (2 vols., 1866); The Unconscious Truth of the Four Gospels (1868); Jesus (1871); The Power of the Spirit (1877); Jesus the Heart of Christianity (1883); The Story of the Resurrection (1885); Verses, Translations and Hymns (1886); upwards of a hundred separate sermons and pamphlets; and many translations from the German. In March, 1898, a monument to his memory was unveiled in the First Unitarian church in Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 30, 1896.
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