Editing Ezra Stiles

{{short description|American theologian, clergyman and Yale College president}}
{{About|the theologian and educator}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name                = Ezra Stiles
| image               = Samuel King - Ezra Stiles (1727 -1795), B.A. 1746, M.A. 1749 - 1955.3.1 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg
| caption             = Stiles, 1770–1771, by [[Samuel King (artist)|Samuel King]]
| order               = 7th
| title               = [[List of Presidents of Yale University|President of Yale University]]
| term_start          = 1778
| term_end            = 1795
| predecessor         = [[Naphtali Daggett]]<br>{{small|as ''pro tempore''}}
| successor           = [[Timothy Dwight IV]]
| birth_date          = {{OldStyleDate|10 December|1727|29 November}}
| birth_place         = [[North Haven, Connecticut|North Haven]], [[Connecticut Colony]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1795|5|12|1727|10|12}}
| death_place         = [[New Haven, Connecticut]]
| children            = Betsey Stiles; Ruth (Stiles) Gannett; Emilia (Stiles) Leavitt; Polly (Stiles) Holmes; Isaac Stiles
| signature           = Ezra Stiles signature.svg
| education           = [[Yale College]]
| relations           = [[Edward Taylor]] (grandfather)
| residence           = [[Ezra Stiles House]] <small>(1756–1776)</small>
}}

'''Ezra Stiles''' ({{OldStyleDate|10 December|1727|29 November}} – May 12, 1795)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stiles|first=Ezra|url=|title=The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles: Jan. 1, 1769l-Mar. 13, 1776|date=1901|publisher=C. Scribner's sons|pages=1|language=en}}</ref><ref>Holmes, Abiel (1798). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ALc8AAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+tenth+day+of+December%2C+1727%22 ''The Life of Ezra Stiles ... President of Yale College,'' p. 9.]</ref> was an American educator, academic, [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] minister, theologian, and author. He is noted as the [[List of presidents of Yale University|seventh president]] of [[Yale College]] (1778–1795) and one of the founders of [[Brown University]].<ref>Welch, Lewis ''et al.'' (1899). [https://books.google.com/books?id=V8wWAAAAIAAJ&dq=Yale+and+Noah+Porter&pg=PA301 ''Yale, Her Campus, Class-rooms, and Athletics,'' p. 445.]</ref><ref>Edmund S Morgan, ''The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727–1795'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1962), 205.</ref> According to religious historian Timothy L. Hall, Stiles' tenure at Yale distinguishes him as "one of the first great American college presidents."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Hall|first=Timothy L.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49284351|title=American Religious Leaders|date=2003|publisher=Facts On File|isbn=0-8160-4534-8|location=New York|pages=343|oclc=49284351}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Ezra Stiles diploma Yale College class of 1746.jpg|thumb|[[Yale College]] diploma, Ezra Stiles, Class of 1746]]Ezra Stiles was born on {{OldStyleDate|10 December|1727|29 November}} in [[North Haven, Connecticut|North Haven]], Connecticut, to Rev. Isaac Stiles and Kezia Taylor Stiles (1702–1727). His maternal grandfather, [[Edward Taylor]] had emigrated to Colonial America from [[Leicestershire|Leicestershire, England]], in 1668.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-05-01|title=Edward Taylor|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edward-taylor|access-date=2021-05-02|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en}}</ref> Kezia Taylor Stiles died four days after giving birth to Ezra.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Morgan|first=Edmund S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7F83CwAAQBAJ|title=The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795|date=2014-01-01|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-0-8078-3972-0|pages=206|language=en}}</ref>

Stiles received his early education at home and matriculated at Yale College in September 1742, as one of 13 members of the college's freshman class. At Yale, he studied a [[Liberal arts education|liberal arts]] curriculum characterized by an uncertain period of transition between moribund Puritan thought and that of newer thinkers like [[John Locke]] and [[Isaac Newton]]. Stiles also studied works by [[Thomas Farnaby]], [[Isaac Watts]], and [[John Ward (academic)|John Ward]]. According to biographer [[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Edmund Morgan]], the young Stiles read "a strange conglomeration of the first-rate and the third-rate" authors.<ref name=":2" /> He graduated in 1746.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morgan|first=Edmund S.|date=1954|title=Ezra Stiles: The Education of a Yale Man, 1742-1746|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3816428|journal=Huntington Library Quarterly|volume=17|issue=3|pages=251–268|doi=10.2307/3816428|jstor=3816428|issn=0018-7895}}</ref> Stiles was conferred a perfunctory Master of Arts degree from Yale and became ordained in 1749 after further studies in theology.<ref name=":2" />

From 1749 to 1755, Stiles worked as a tutor at Yale. During this period, he drifted away from [[Calvinism]] and preached to Native Americans in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Lenik|first=Edward J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKBHqkzoGWEC|title=Making Pictures in Stone: American Indian Rock Art of the Northeast|date=2009|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-5509-8|pages=9|language=en}}</ref> In a 1762 letter, [[Samuel Johnson (American educator)|Samuel Johnson]] notes that the young Stiles at one point nearly became an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], writing that he "was once on the point of conforming to the Church, but was dissuaded by his friends, and is become much of a [[Latitudinarian]]."<ref>Johnson, Samuel, ''Samuel Johnson, President of King's College; His Career and Writings'', edited by Herbert and Carol Schneider, New York: Columbia University Press, 1929, Volume 1, p. 321</ref>

In 1753 Stiles resigned from his position as a tutor to pursue a career in law and practice at [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]]. Stiles qualified for the New Haven bar by November 13, 1753, after [[reading law]].<ref name=":2" /> After two years, he returned to his service as a Congregationalist minister.

In 1768, Stiles was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, I:119, 149, 152, 155, 156, 477, 487, 505, II:13, 209, 217, 219, 276, III:16, 52, 189, 296–392, 297, 431, 481, 604, 607, 608, 613.</ref> In 1784, he was elected an honorary member of the [[Society of the Cincinnati]] of Connecticut, one of the first so honored, for his ardent support of the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot cause]].

== Newport <small>(1755-1776)</small> ==
[[File:Clarke_Street_Meeting_House_Newport_Rhode_Island.jpg|thumb|Stiles moved to Newport in 1755 to serve as minister of the [[Clarke Street Meeting House|Second Congregational Church]] ]]
In 1752, Stiles traveled to [[Newport, Rhode Island]], for his health. During his trip, the city's [[Trinity Episcopal Church (Newport, Rhode Island)|Trinity Church]]—the largest Anglican congregation in New England—sought Stiles to serve as its minister, offering him a salary of £200 sterling.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=R.I.)|first1=Trinity Church (Newport|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7RNAQAAMAAJ|title=Annals of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. 1698-1821|last2=Mason|first2=George Champlin|date=1890|publisher=G.C. Mason|pages=103|language=en}}</ref> Stiles rejected the offer and departed from the city, writing "that all his Art and Address and fine offers were ineffectual."<ref name=":2" />

In 1755, the [[Clarke Street Meeting House|Second Congregational Church]] of Newport likewise sought out the young minister. In August, after serving in an interim capacity, he joined the church as for a salary of £65 Sterling. In the later months 1756, a [[Ezra Stiles House|clapboard house]] was constructed for Stiles on Clark Street, across from the meeting house of his congregation.<ref name=":2" /> Since 1972, the residence has been listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].

In September of the same year, Stiles was made Librarian of the [[Redwood Library and Athenaeum]], a position that allowed him access to books at his discretion.<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFVFAQAAMAAJ|title=Annual Report of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum|date=September 28, 1881|publisher=Davis & Pitman, Book and Job Printers|location=Newport, RI|pages=11|language=en}}</ref> During his years in Newport, Stiles kept an informative diary of his life and acquaintances, which detailed—among other things—his association with Portuguese merchant [[Aaron Lopez]].

In 1757, Stiles married Elizabeth Hubbard, with whom he had eight children.<ref name=":1" />

=== Slavery ===
[[File:Ezra Stiles House, Clarke St, Newport Rhode island.jpg|thumb|The [[Ezra Stiles House]] in [[Newport, Rhode Island]]]]
From time to time, Stiles invested with the merchants and sea captains of his congregation; in 1756, he sent a [[hogshead]] of rum along on a voyage to Africa and was repaid with a 10-year-old male slave, whom he renamed "Newport". Around the same time, he wrote a joint letter with fellow Newport minister [[Samuel Hopkins (1721–1803)|Samuel Hopkins]] condemning "the great inhumanity and cruelty" of [[slavery in the United States]].<ref name="yaleslavery">{{cite web | url=http://www.yaleslavery.org/WhoYaleHonors/stiles1.html | title=Ezra Stiles College | publisher=The Amistad Committee | work=Yale, Slavery, & Abolition | year=2001 | access-date=December 12, 2012 |author1=Dugdale, Antony |author2=J. J. Fueser |author3=J. Celso de Castro Alves }}</ref>

===Foundation of Brown University===
During his residence in Newport, Stiles played a major role in the establishment of [[Brown University]] (then Rhode Island College).

According to Edmund Morgan, in Rhode Island's religious diversity Stiles "saw an opportunity to join with Christians of other denominations in a project which would exemplify their common faith in free inquiry.... a college in which the major religious groups of the colony should unite in the pursuit of knowledge."<ref name=":2" /> In 1761, Stiles, along with [[William Ellery|William Ellery Jr.]] and [[Josias Lyndon]], drafted a petition to the [[Rhode Island General Assembly]] to establish a "literary institution".<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Stiles|first=Ezra|url=http://archive.org/details/cu31924030935765|title=Extracts From the Itineraries and Other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D. D., Ll. D., 1755-1794: With a Selection From His Correspondence|date=1916|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|editor-last=Dexter|editor-first=Franklin Bowditch|location=[[New Haven, Connecticut]]|pages=25}}</ref> The editor of Stiles's papers observes, "This draft of a petition connects itself with other evidence of Dr. Stiles's project for a Collegiate Institution in Rhode Island, before the charter of what became Brown University."<ref name=":8" /><ref>[[Brown University#Dexter|Dexter (1916)]], p. 25.</ref>

There is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles:<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Bronson|first=Walter Cochrane|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofbrownun0000bron|title=The History of Brown University, 1764-1914|date=1914|publisher=Providence, The University|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-405-03697-2|pages=346–347}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=The week before last I sent you the Copy of Yale College Charter ... Should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it; I heartily wish you Success therein.}}Stiles agreed to write the Charter for the college, submitting a first draft to the General Assembly in August 1763. A revised version of the Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 3, 1764, in [[East Greenwich, Rhode Island|East Greenwich]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Encyclopedia Brunoniana {{!}} Charter|url=https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=C0350|access-date=2021-04-10|website=www.brown.edu}}</ref> In drafting the document, Stiles combined broad-minded public statements defining Rhode Island College as a "liberal and catholic institution" in which "shall never be admitted a religious test" with private partisanship: his draft charter packed the board of trustees and the fellows of the college with his fellow Congregationalists.

Baptist members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, to Stiles' dismay, amended the charter to allow Baptists control of both branches of the College's Corporation.<ref>Hoeveler, David J., ''Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, p. 191</ref> Stiles declined a seat on the College's Corporation, writing that Baptists had seized "the whole Power and Government of the College and thus by the Immutability of the numbers establishing it a Party College." Stiles continued to work towards his vision of a non-sectarian institution after the establishment of Rhode Island College, presenting in 1770 a petition for the establishment of another college in Newport.<ref name=":2" />

===Scholarship===
[[File:Ezra_Stiles_by_Nathaniel_Smibert_1756.jpeg|thumb|A 1756 portrait of Stiles]]

==== Semitic scholarship ====
Stiles struck up a close friendship with [[Haim Isaac Carigal]] of Hebron during the [[Rabbi]]'s 1773 residence in Newport.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Rabbi from Hebron and the President of Yale |url=http://hebron.org.il/history/363 |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=the Jewish Community of Hebron |language=en}}</ref> Stiles' records note 28 meetings to discuss a wide variety of topics from [[Kabbalah]] to the politics of the [[Holy Land]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Geffen |first=Rabbi David |date=2021-05-13 |title=Hebron Rabbi Spoke on Shavuot in 1773 Newport |url=https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/hebron-rabbi-spoke-on-shavuot-in-1773-newport/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=Atlanta Jewish Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Stiles improved his rudimentary knowledge of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], to the point where he and Carigal corresponded by mail in the language.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Stiles |first1=Ezra |url=http://archive.org/details/andthejews00stilerich |title=Ezra Stiles and the Jews; selected passages from his Literary diary concerning Jews and Judaism |last2=Kohut |first2=George Alexander |date=1902 |publisher=New York, P. Cowen |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> Stiles' knowledge of Hebrew also enabled him to translate large portions of the Hebrew [[Old Testament]] into English. Stiles believed, as did many Christian scholars of the time, that facility with the text in its original language was advantageous for proper interpretation.

==== Native American scholarship ====
Stiles conducted research on the Native Americans of New England. In 1761, he visited a Native American village in [[Niantic, Connecticut]], where he recorded notes on the traditional construction methods of [[wigwam]]s. Stiles additionally documented information on the languages and petroglyphs of New England's Native peoples. According to archaeologist Edward J. Lenik, Stiles "produced one of the most important early records of petroglyphs and American Indian life in New England."<ref name=":0" />

==American Revolution==
Stiles left Newport in 1776 prior to the arrival of British troops and their subsequent occupation of the city. In 1776 and 1777, Stiles served briefly as minister of the [[Dighton Community Church]] in [[Dighton, Massachusetts]].<ref name=":1" />

In 1777, Stiles became pastor of [[North Church (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)|North Church]] in [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]]. As pastor, he defended the monarchy as the best form of government in his sermon, entitled ''[[The United States elevated to Glory and Honor]],'' to the [[Connecticut General Assembly|General Assembly of the State of Connecticut]] in 1783. He stated that "a monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments."

==Yale presidency==
[[File:Reuben_Moulthrop_-_Ezra_Stiles_(1727-1795),_B.A.1746,_M.A.1749_-_1833.1_-_Yale_University_Art_Gallery.jpg|thumb|[[Reuben Moulthrop]] painted this portrait of Stiles in 1794, while he was serving as President of Yale College.]]
In 1778, Stiles was appointed president of Yale, a post he held until his death. He freed his slave Newport on June 9, 1778, as he prepared to move to [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]]; he would in 1782 hire his former slave for $20 a year and indentured Newport's two-year-old son until age 24.<ref>Saillant, John, ''Black Puritan, Black Republican: The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, 1753–1833'', Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 131</ref> As president of Yale, Stiles became its first professor of [[Semitic studies|Semitics]], and required all students to study Hebrew (as [[Harvard]] students already did); his first [[Commencement speech|commencement address]] in September 1781 (no ceremonies having been held during the [[American Revolutionary War]]) was delivered in Hebrew, [[Aramaic]], and [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. By 1790, however, he was forced to face failure in instilling an interest in the language in the student body, writing

<blockquote>From my first accession to the Presidency ... I have obliged all the Freshmen to study Hebrew. This has proved very disagreeable to a Number of the Students. This year I have determined to instruct only those who offer themselves voluntarily.</blockquote>

The [[valedictorian]]s of 1785 and 1792, however, did deliver their speeches in Hebrew.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Hebrew Came to Yale {{!}} Yale University Library |url=https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/hebraica/hebrew-at-yale |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=web.library.yale.edu}}</ref>

Stiles was an amateur scientist who corresponded with [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Benjamin Franklin]] about scientific discoveries. Using equipment donated to the college by Franklin, Stiles conducted the electrical experiments in [[New England]], continuing a practice first begun by his predecessor, President [[Thomas Clap]]. He charged a glass tube with static electricity and used it to "excite the wonder and admiration of an audience".<ref name=":3">Morgan, Edmund, ''The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727–1795'', University of North Carolina Press, 2014, p. 91</ref> He shocked 52 people at once, fired spirits of wine and rum, and caused counterfeit spiders to move about as if they were alive. These were all experiments that had been performed before, and "Stiles seems to have had little genius for pushing back the frontiers of knowledge" and his observations "disclosed nothing new".<ref name=":3" /> He was more a learner and teacher than an experimenter. Nevertheless, he was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1781.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter S|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterS.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 28, 2014}}</ref>

His book ''[[The United States elevated to Glory and Honor]]'' was printed in 1783.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/41/ |title=The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor|journal=Electronic Texts in American Studies |date=January 1783 |last1=Stiles |first1=Ezra |last2=Smolinski |first2=Reiner }}</ref> The book is a transcript of a sermon given to the [[Connecticut General Assembly]], on May 8, 1783. The sermon draws parallels between the United States and the Biblical nation of [[Israel (Bible)|Israel]]. Stiles refers to the US as an "American Israel, high above all nations which He hath made, in numbers, and in praise, and in name, and in honor", suggesting that the [[White Americans]] are like the [[Chosen People]] of Israel. He opined that "in God’s good providence" [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] and [[African American|Africans]] "may gradually vanish", thus ensuring that "an unrighteous SLAVERY may at length, in God’s good providence, be abolished and cease in the land of LIBERTY."<ref name="Guyatt">{{cite book |last1=Guyatt |first1=Nicholas |title=Providence and the Invention of the United States, 1607-1876 |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-86788-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCV7XjWY5nwC |language=en}}</ref>

===Death and legacy at Yale===
[[File:Ezra_Stiles_College_Courtyard.jpg|thumb|[[Ezra Stiles College]] at Yale]]Stiles died in New Haven in 1795, while serving as president.

It is false that Stiles is responsible for the addition of the Hebrew words [[Urim and Thummim|"Urim" and "Thummim"]] ({{Langx|he|אורים ותמים}}) to the Yale seal. Indeed, the Hebrew on the Yale seal appears on Stiles' own master's degree diploma from Yale in 1749, decades before he became president of Yale College.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=O-uOQgAACAAJ&q=dan+oren Oren, Dan A. (2001) Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale, Revised edition, p. 347.]</ref>

In 1961, Yale named a new residential college in his honor: [[Ezra Stiles College]]. The college is noted for its design by modernist architect [[Eero Saarinen]].

Stiles' upholstered armchair is currently in the [[Yale University Art Gallery]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]]. The chair was made in [[Newport, Rhode Island]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Upholdtered armchair, RIF5502 |url=https://rifa.art.yale.edu/detail.htm?id=168671&type=0 |website=The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery |access-date=4 February 2020}}</ref>

==Family==
Stiles married twice (Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Checkley Cranston) and had eight children. Stiles' son Ezra Stiles, Esq., was educated first at Yale College, then at [[Harvard College]], where he studied law, graduating in 1778. Ezra Stiles Jr., subsequently settled in [[Vermont]], and served to establish the boundaries between Vermont and [[New Hampshire]]. He died prematurely at [[Chowan County, North Carolina]], on August 22, 1784, and his two daughters by his wife Sylvia (Avery) Stiles of Vermont (and formerly of [[Norwich, Connecticut]]) had their uncle [[Jonathan Leavitt]] appointed their guardian.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DAMTAAAAYAAJ&q=ezra+stiles The Stiles Family in America, Genealogies of the Connecticut Family, Henry Reed Stiles, Doan & Pilson, Jersey City, 1895]</ref>

Stiles' daughter Emilia married Judge and State Senator [[Jonathan Leavitt]] of [[Greenfield, Massachusetts|Greenfield]], Massachusetts. His daughter Mary married, in 1790, [[Abiel Holmes]], a [[Congregational]] clergyman and historian and a 1783 graduate of Yale College. By his second marriage to Sarah Wendell, Abiel was the father of [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Portal|Biography|Rhode Island}}
* Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. (1901). ''The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles'' (Vol. I, January 1, 1769 – March 13, 1776). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
* __________. (1901). [https://books.google.com/books?id=jZdDAAAAIAAJ ''The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles''] [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/271225872?page=frame&url=%3D%3FUTF-8%3FB%3FaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hcmNoaXZlLm9yZy9kZXRhaWxzL2xpdGVyYXJ5ZGlhcnlvZmUwMnN0aWw%3D%3F%3D&title=&linktype=digitalObject&detail= Vol. II, March 14, 1776 – December 31, 1781.] New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/2198912 OCLC 2198912]
*  __________. (1901). ''The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles'' (Vol. III, January 1, 1782 – May 6, 1795). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
* {{Cite book|title=A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8078-4772-5|location=Chapel Hill|last=Grasso|first=Christopher}}
* Holmes, Abiel. (1798). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ALc8AAAAYAAJ ''The Life of Ezra Stiles D.D. LL.D. ... President of Yale College.''] Boston: Thomas & Andrews. [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/11506585 OCLC 11506585]
* Kelley, Brooks Mather. (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=B2aDRhohtx8C ''Yale: A History.''] New Haven: [[Yale University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-300-07843-5}}; [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/810552 OCLC 810552]
* [[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Morgan]], Edmund Sears. (1983). [https://books.google.com/books?id=g9sqKgAACAAJ&q=The+Gentle+Puritan:+A+Life+of+Ezra+Stiles,+1727-1795 ''The Gentle Puritan: A Life of Ezra Stiles, 1727–1795.'' The gentle puritan: a life of Ezra Stiles, 1727–1795.] Raleigh: [[University of North Carolina Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-1231-0}}
* Welch, Lewis Sheldon and Walter Camp. (1899). [https://books.google.com/books?id=V8wWAAAAIAAJ ''Yale, Her Campus, Class-rooms, and Athletics.''] Boston: L. C. Page and Co. [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/2191518 OCLC 2191518]

== External links ==
{{Sister project links | wikt=no | commons=Category:Ezra Stiles | b=no | n=no | q=no | s=Author:Ezra Stiles | v=no | voy=no | species=no | d=no | mw=no | display=Ezra Stiles}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131220123139/http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/exhibits/education/founding.html Brown University's John Hay Library]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120202082531/http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Corporation/downloads/charter-of-brown-university.pdf Brown University Charter]
*[https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/11407 Ezra Stiles Papers. General Collection], Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

{{S-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{Succession box| title=[[University President|President]] of [[Yale University|Yale College]] | before=[[Naphtali Daggett]], ''pro tempore'' | after=[[Timothy Dwight IV]] | years=1778–1795}}
{{S-end}}
{{Yale University presidents}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Ezra}}
[[Category:1727 births]]
[[Category:1795 deaths]]
[[Category:American slave owners]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Presidents of Yale University]]
[[Category:American theologians]]
[[Category:People from North Haven, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from colonial Connecticut]]
[[Category:Christian Hebraists]]
[[Category:American Hebraists]]
[[Category:Burials at Grove Street Cemetery]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:University and college founders]]
[[Category:Brown University people]]
[[Category:Clergy in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:18th-century American Congregationalist ministers]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from New Haven, Connecticut]]
[[Category:American Arabists]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]