Samuel Dunbar was born in Boston on October 2, 1704. When he was 4, his father died. At a very early age he attracted the attention of the Reverend Cotton Mather.

With Mather’s guidance, Dunbar attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College. In 1727, the people of Canton reached out and sent letters of inquiry asking that the 23 year old accept a ministry over the Church of Christ in Stoughton.

Dunbar was a Loyalist, much like nearly everyone else in New England in the mid-1700s, but as time went by he began to support Patriot causes. He was present at the meeting that brought about the Suffolk Resolves, and it was said that he opened that meeting with “the most extraordinary liberty prayer” ever heard.

So it makes sense that Dunbar was the first minister to read the Declaration from the pulpit.

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