Reverend Convers Francis

The last minister hired by the town before the separation of church and state, Convers Francis (1795-1863) served the First Parish of Watertown from 1819 to 1842. In 1842, Francis became the Parkman Professor of Pulpit Eloquence at Harvard Divinity School. Francis and his sister, Lydia Maria Child, were both members of the Transcendendalist movement.

The library has digitized Francis’s History of Watertown, published in 1830, as well as his collections of Historical Discourses and Sketches (Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V), Dedication Discourses, and Eulogies & Funeral Discourses. Most of these were delivered by fellow Congregationalist pastors, but Francis’s own “Three Discourses Preached Before the Congregational Church in Watertown: Two, Upon Leaving the Old Meeting-House; and One, at the Dedication of the New” (1836) are included in the Dedication Discourses.

200 of Francis’s hand-written sermons have also been digitized. Sermon content has not been indexed; however, you can use Ctrl+F to search this page for a word or phrase in the sermon titles. Check the list of sermons in our catalog for dates and additional notes. The rest of the handwritten sermons can be viewed by appointment in the Local History Room.