Missionary, convert, first native of New England ordained to the
priesthood, b. 1755; d. February 5, 1815 Thayer, JOHN,
missionary, convert, first native of New England ordained to the
priesthood, b. at Boston, Mass., 1755; d. in Limerick, Ireland,
February 5, 1815. His family were among the early Puritan
settlers of New England and all during his career he manifested
much of their stern unbending character. Educated at Yale, he
became a Congregationalist minister and as such served during
the Revolutionary War as chaplain of a company organized for the
defense of Boston and of which John Hancock was commander. After
the war he wandered over Europe and was in Rome when the beggar-
saint Benedict Joseph Labre died. An attempt he made to dispute
some of the miracles wrought through Blessed Labre's
intercession resulted in Thayer's conversion to the Faith, May
25, 1783. His own account of this conversion, one of the first
of prominent New England Protestants, was printed in 1787 and
reissued in several editions i