Jared Eliot

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Jared Eliot (November 7, 1685 – April 22, 1763) was a Connecticut minister, physician and agriculture writer, who was born in Guilford, Connecticut, the son of the Reverend Joseph Eliot and his second wife, Mary (Wyllys) Eliot, and the grandson of famed Massachusetts missionary John Eliot and his wife, Ann (Mumford) Eliot.

He was educated at Collegiate School of Connecticut (now Yale University), ordained in 1709, and appointed pastor of the Congregational Church in Killingworth, Connecticut. He served in that position until his death in Killingworth.

In 1722, along with Timothy Cutler, Eliot questioned Congregationalism and professed respect for Anglicanism, though he would ultimately remain a loyal Congregationalist. In 1740, he was an unsuccessful Connecticut gubernatorial candidate.

His Essays on Field Husbandry in New England was the first agriculture work printed in America. He is credited, along with Ezra Stiles, with introducing sericulture (the production of silk) to American agriculture. As a farmer, Eliot was a slave owner [1]. His work in agriculture and medicine would earn him a reputation as one of the finest American scientists of his era.