COLMAN, Benjamin, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 19 October, 1673; died there, 29 August, 1747. He was graduated at Harvard in 1692, began preaching soon afterward, embarked for England in July, 1695, was captured by a French privateer, and reached England after a brief imprisonment. He there became acquainted with eminent nonconformist divines, and preached in Bath and other places. In 1699 he returned to take charge of the Brattle street church, receiving ordination in London, because the society, just organized in opposition to the Cambridge platform, differed with the other churches in New England in regard to the forms of service, desiring to abolish the public relation of experiences, and to introduce reading of the Scriptures and recital of the Lord's prayer. He remained with the society, with which the other Boston churches long refused to hold communion, till his death, ranking among the first of New England clergymen, and exerting a powerful influence in civil affairs that sometimes drew censure upon him. He procured benefactions for Harvard and Yale Colleges, and interested himself in the mission among the Housatonic Indians and other benevolent enterprises. In 1724 he was offered, but refused, the presidency of Harvard. Many of his sermons, some poems, and a tract in favor of inoculation for small-pox, were published. His collected sermons were printed in three volumes (Boston, 1707-'22). See "Life and Character of Col-man," by his son-in-law, the Rev. Ebenezer Turell (Boston, 1749), and Hopkins's "History of the Houssatonnoc Indians."