Samuel Phillips Jr. (February 5, 1752 – February 10, 1802) was an American merchant, manufacturer, politician, and the founder of

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was Settler, settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''Encyclopedia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed. ...

. Phillips is considered a pioneer in American

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

Biography

Samuel Phillips Jr. was born in

(in a part that is now

North Andover North Andover is a New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 30,915. History Native Americans in the United States, Native ...

). He was a descendant of the Rev. George Phillips of Watertown, the progenitor of the New England Phillips family in America. His grandfather Rev. Samuel Phillips was the first and long-time pastor of the South Church in Andover. A graduate of

Governor Dummer Academy The Governor's Academy (informally known as Governor's or Govs) is a co-educational, college-preparatory day and boarding school in Byfield, Massachusetts. Established in 1763 in memory of Massachusetts governor William Dummer, Governor's is th ...

in 1767, and

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1771, Phillips was a very active and able member of the

Massachusetts Provincial Congress The Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774–1780) was a provisional government created in the Province of Massachusetts Bay early in the American Revolution. Based on the terms of the colonial charter, it exercised ''de facto'' control over th ...

from 1775 to 1780. He served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1779 and 1780, and was a state senator from 1780 to 1802, holding the office of

President of the Massachusetts Senate The president of the Massachusetts Senate is the presiding officer. Unlike the United States Congress, in which the vice president of the United States is the ''ex officio'' president of the United States Senate, in Massachusetts, the president ...

from 1785 until his death. For a short period before his death, Phillips also served as the fifth Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. In November 1789 he escorted newly elected President

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

on his progress through Massachusetts to Concord. Beginning in 1775, Phillips aided the revolutionary cause by producing gunpowder for Washington's troops at a mill on the

Shawsheen River The Shawsheen River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Merrimack River in northeast Massachusetts. The name has had various spellings ...

in Andover. Though plagued by difficulties, the powder mill remained active into the 1790s. During this period, Phillips also ran a paper mill in Andover. In the midst of the Revolution, and with financial backing from his father and his uncle, Dr. John Phillips, Samuel Phillips Jr. founded

in Andover. It opened on April 21, 1778. He was a charter member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1780. Like the rest of his family and many Massachusetts patriots, Samuel Phillips Jr. was a strict

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

, but he was also a practical visionary concerned about the improvement of society. In the preamble to his constitution for the new school, Phillips wrote: "Youth is the important period, on the improvement or neglect of which depend the most important consequences to individuals and the community." He set out "to lay the foundation of a public free School or Academy for the purpose of instructing Youth, not only in English and Latin Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, and those Sciences, wherein they are commonly taught; but more especially to learn them the Great End and Real Business of Living." From the first, financial aid scholarships were part of the program of Phillips Academy: "This Seminary shall be ever equally open to Youth, with requisit qualification, from every quarter."

Bibliography

*Allis, Frederick S. Jr., ''Youth from Every Quarter: A Bicentennial History of Phillips Academy, Andover'' (University Press of New England, 1978). *Taylor, John
''A Memoir of His Honor Samuel Phillips''"> ''A Memoir of His Honor Samuel Phillips''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Samuel Jr. 1752 births 1802 deaths People from North Andover, Massachusetts Massachusetts Federalists Lieutenant governors of Massachusetts Massachusetts state senators Presidents of the Massachusetts Senate Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Founders of American schools and colleges Harvard College alumni Phillips Academy Phillips family (New England) People from colonial Massachusetts Politicians from Andover, Massachusetts The Governor's Academy alumni 18th-century American merchants

Biography

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