Rev. Ebenezer Phillips

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5th Minister of the East Hampton Church 1811-1830

Rev. Ebenezer Phillips (1785-1834) was ordained as the fifth pastor of the East Hampton Church on May 5, 1811. He would have preached from the 1717 Church on Main Street, East Hampton. Representing the Presbytery of Long Island, Rev. Phillips attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, in Philadelphia, Pa on May 1815. Rev. Phillips sent regular contributions from the East Hampton Female Society in Aid of Foreign Mission to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Created in 1810, the ABCFM was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations and consisted of participants from Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and German Reformed churches. At this time, there was no separation of church and state. The town ran the church, hired the Pastors, and paid for the churches upkeep. A town board meeting was held in 1830 to consider the resignation of Rev. Phillips. Failing health caused his resignation on March 16, 1830.

Rev. Phillips was the son of Phileatus Phillips of Greenville, New York and Esther Benedict (1765-1850). Rev. Phillips was not the first minister in the family, descending from more 3 generations of Harvard educated ministers (Rev. George Phillips 1593- ), Rev. Samuel Phillips (1625- ), Rev. George Phillips (1644- ). His great-grandfather Rev. George Phillips (1644- ) was the second minister of the church at Setauket, Suffolk County,NY. Rev. Phillips great-great uncle, Dr. John Phillips was the founder of Phillips Academy (1778) in Andover, MA. Rev. Phillips married Mary (1789-1837). Their only child Esther Ann Phillips most likely was born in East Hampton in 1815 and would have been 15 when her family left East Hampton. She died at the age of 17, two years before her father on May 18, 1832, in Carmel, NY.

In 1811thru 1831 Rev. Phillip’s East Hampton home was the Mulford farmhouse in the heart of the East Hampton Village. The farmland was rented to Jeremiah and Samuel Miller at the time. The home still stands, and today is owned by the East Hampton Historical Society.

After leaving East Hampton, Rev. Phillips moved to Carmel in Putnam, NY where he died four years later at the age of 48 on February 15, 1834. He is buried in Gilead Cemetery, in Carmel, NY. Gilead Cemetery is in the New York State and National Register of Historic Places.

Covenant between the People of East Hampton and E. Phillips : April, 1811. [Phillips, Ebenezer, 1786-1834]For educational use only. The East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection. For any other use, please contact The Long Island Collection, East Hampton Library, 159 Main St., East Hampton, NY 11937. 631-324-0222 x 4 or email lic@easthamptonlibrary.org.

Annual Report - American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Compiled from documents laid before the Board, atht eh Third Annual Meeting, which was held at Hartford, September 16, 1812, Volumes 3-12, 1812

East Hampton Star

A History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Volume 2, by Peter Ross, William Smith Pelletreau, 1905

Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States from its Organization, 1789-1820

The Mulford House: A Strategy to Reinterpret a Small House Museum Maria S. Dayton University of Pennsylvania Jan 2007

Norwalk, by Rev.. Charles Melbourne Selleck, A.M.,Norwalk, Ct, self published 1896

Sag Harbor Express

Up and Down Main Street, An Informal History of East Hampton and its Old Houses by Jeanette Edwards Rattray 1968