page_title: Ebenezer Pemberton
section_title: Early life and family
hierarchical_section_title: Ebenezer Pemberton / Early life and family
caption_attribution_description: English: A copper engraving of Pemberton from Sermons and Discourses on Several Occasions, a collection of his works published in 1727.
context_page_description: Ebenezer Pemberton was an American educator and 2nd Principal of Phillips Academy Andover from 1786 to 1793. Refusing to follow his uncle's wishes to become a clergyman, Pemberton pursued a teaching career that would become his life's work. After graduating from Princeton University, he served terms as principal of a number of schools for early education including Plainfield Academy in Plainfield, Connecticut, Phillips Academy, and his own Pemberton Academy in Billerica, Massachusetts. He founded another school in 1810 in Boston, serving as principal there until poor health forced him to retire.
context_section_description: Pemberton was born in Newport, Rhode Island some time in 1746 to Samuel Pemberton (May 3, 1710 – ca.1774) and Mary Frye Leach (b. December 16, 1713), daughter of Thomas Leach and Sarah Frye, and had three siblings:
  Patrick Grant (September 30, 1750 – 1811) married Mary Johnson, daughter of Sylvester and Mary Johnson.  He served in the Revolutionary War with the Connecticut Militia out of Preston, Connecticut.  He was a private in Captain John William's company and Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Gallup's regiment and was stationed at Fort Griswold in 1779.
  Joanna (d. March 1, 1808) married Captain John Cady July 8, 1779 in Plainfield, Connecticut.  Originally living together in Plainfield, they moved to Norwich, Connecticut for greater convenience for Capt. Cady's work as a ship captain.  After his death Joanna returned to Plainfield for her two children's education and once they matured, she moved to New London, Connecticut where she would spend the remainder of her life.
  Mary (d. 1800) died unmarried.
  After Samuel Pemberton died, Mary Leach married Judge Lightfoot (1716-1794) and had no children.  From the age of seven, Pemberton grew up with his uncle, Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, of Boston, pastor of Boston's New Brick Church and a founder of Princeton University and the Log College.  His grandfather, also named Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, was a minister of the Old South Church in Boston, which at the time resided in the Old South Meeting House.  Consequently, due to his uncle's connections with the school, Pemberton attended Princeton University, then called the College of New Jersey, and graduated in 1765, valedictorian of his class.  One Philadelphia newspaper reports Pemberton delivered an "elegant valedictory Oration on Patriotism."
caption: Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, pastor of the Old South Church, grandfather of the subject.
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