ELIOT, Andrew, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 28 December 1718; died there, 13 September 1778. His great-grandfather, Andrew Elliott, of Somersetshire, settled in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1683. He was graduated at Harvard in 1737, and in 1742 was ordained as colleague pastor with Mr. Webb, of the New north Church in Boston, where he remained until his death, being sole pastor after 1750. The University of Edinburgh gave him the degree of D. D. in 1767, and in 1765 he was chosen to the corporation of Harvard, afterward declining an election to the presidency in 1773.

During the British occupation of Boston Dr. Eliot did much to alleviate the sufferings of the people, but, notwithstanding his devotion to the patriot cause, his moderation won him the respect of the royalists. When Governor Hutchinson's house was plundered by a mob, Dr. Eliot saved a large number of valuable manuscripts, including the second volume of the "History of Massachusetts Bay."

He was much interested in the conversion of the Indians, and labored for the passage of an act, which was after ward vetoed by the governor, to establish in Massachusetts a society for propagating the gospel among the Indians, similar to that in London, of which he was a member. He took an active part in upholding the Congregational system against the Episcopalians, and published occasional discourses and a volume of sermons (1774). He also sent to a friend in England, in 1768, an account of the effects of the dispute between the colonies and the mother country, which was praised for its candor and moderation.

His son, John Eliot, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 31 May 1754; died there, 14 February 1813, was graduated at Harvard in 1772, began to preach in 1776, and was for a short time chaplain of a Boston regiment. On 3 November 1779, he was ordained as his father's successor in the pastorate of the New north Church, where he remained until his death. He received the degree of D. D. from Edinburgh University in 1797, and was chosen a member of the Harvard Corporation in 1804. Dr. Eliot was intimately associated with Jeremy Belknap in the formation of the Massachusetts historical society, and was a principal contributor to its collections and to its library of rare books. Besides numerous articles in the Historical society's collections, and various sermons, he published a "Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Characters in New England" (Salem and Boston, 1809).

Another son, Ephraim Eliot, was graduated at Harvard in 1780. and became a druggist in Boston. He published "Historical Notices of the New North Religious Society, with Anecdotes of Rev. Andrew Eliot and John Eliot" (1822).