John Sylvester John Gardiner (1765–1830), aka John S. J. Gardiner, was Rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of Trinity Church

Trinity Church, Boston (Summer Street)

Trinity Church was an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Summer Street. It housed Boston's third Anglican congregation...

, Boston, Massachusetts, president of Boston's Anthology Club

Anthology Club

The Anthology Club, or Anthology Society was organized in 1804 in Boston, Massachusetts by the Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson....

, and active in the Boston Athenaeum.

Born in Wales, and in large part educated in England, Gardiner was a pupil of the famous Dr. Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...

. He was for 37 years the best-known and the leading Episcopal clergyman of Boston. Trained for the law, he turned to divinity and for 25 years was rector of Trinity Church, Boston. Despite this conservative bent, he was on very amiable sociable terms with his Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 brethren. George Ticknor

George Ticknor

George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature....

 studied Latin and Greek under Gardiner's tutelage.

His only daughter married John Perkins Cushing

John Perkins Cushing

John Perkins Cushing , called "Ku-Shing" by the Chinese, was a wealthy Boston sea merchant, opium smuggler, and philanthropist...

, a wealthy China opium smuggler, in 1830. The town of Belmont, Massachusetts

Belmont, Massachusetts

Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census.- History :Belmont was founded on March 18, 1859 by former citizens of, and land from the bordering towns of Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and Arlington, then...

 is named after their estate.

Works by Gardiner

• "Epistle to Zenas." Exchange Advertiser, June 22, 1786.
• Remarks on the Jacobiniad (1795)
• A sermon delivered before the Humane Society, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (1803)
• A sermon preached at Trinity Church, December 9, 1804, on the death of the Right Reverend Samuel Parker
  Samuel Parker (Episcopal bishop)
  Samuel Parker was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.-Education and Ordination:...
  
  , D.D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the state of Massachusetts. (1804)
• A sermon preached at Trinity Church in Boston on fast day, April 7, 1808. (1808; Reprinted in The Port Folio, 1808)
• A sermon, preached before the African Society, on the 14th of July 1810: the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. (1810)
• A discourse, delivered at Trinity Church, Boston, July 23, 1812 on the day of publick fast in Massachusetts, upon the declaration of war against Great-Britain. (1812)
• Life a journey, and man a traveller: A New-Year's sermon, preached at Trinity-Church, on January 4th, 1824, and, by particular desire, delivered again on January 2, 1825. (1825)

Works about Gardiner

• Cyclopaedia of American literature. 1856; p.534+
• Lewis P. Simpson. A Literary Adventure of the Early Republic: The Anthology Society and the Monthly Anthology. New England Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Jun., 1954), pp. 168-190.

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