Introduction

Biography

Henry was the son of Ca­leb Foote (1803–?) and Mary Wil­der White, bro­ther of Ar­thur Will­iam Foote, hus­band of Fran­ces Anne El­i­ot (mar­ried July 9, 1863, Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts), and fa­ther of Henry Wil­der Foote II.

For three years, start­ing at age 12, Hen­ry de­li­vered his fa­ther’s news­pa­per, the Sa­lem Ga­zette.

He was edu­cat­ed at Hack­er Gram­mar School, Sa­lem (from age eight); Fiske La­tin School, Salem; Har­vard Col­lege (now Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty), 1854–58; and Har­vard Di­vi­ni­ty School.

Apart from his col­lege friends at this time, Mr. Foote’s clos­est in­ti­ma­cy was with the val­ued friend of his grand­fa­ther, Judge White—Dr. James Wal­ker, then Pre­si­dent of Har­vard Col­lege…At his house he was a fre­quent and wel­come vi­sit­or (An­nals of King’s Cha­pel, Vol­ume II, page 573).

During Hen­ry’s sen­ior year at Har­vard Col­lege, a long bout of ty­phoid fe­ver in­ter­rupt­ed his stu­dies, but he re­co­vered in time to gra­du­ate with his class in 1858.

After stu­dy­ing at Har­vard Di­vi­ni­ty School, he be­came a Uni­ta­ri­an mi­nis­ter, and served at King’s Cha­pel in Bos­ton from 1861 un­til his death.

Works

• Annals of King’s Cha­pel from the Pu­ri­tan age of New Eng­land to the Pre­sent Day, with Hen­ry Her­bert Ed­es (1849–1922), John Car­roll Per­kins (1862–?) & Wins­low War­ren (1838–1930) (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Lit­tle, Brown, Vol­ume I 1882, Vol­ume II 1896)
• Hymns of the Church Uni­vers­al, with his mo­ther (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: John Wil­son and Son, post­hu­mous, 1890)
• Am­er­ican Uni­ta­ri­an Hymn Writ­ers and Hymns (Cam­bridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts: 1959)