MERRILL, Daniel, clergyman, born in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts, 18 March, 1765: died in Sedgwick, Hancock County, Maine. 3 June, 1833. After serving three years in the Revolutionary army he entered Dartmouth, where he was graduated in 1789. He then studied theology and was licensed to preach in 1791, His first sermon, in Sedgwick, Maine, produced a revival in which nearly 100 persons were converted. After laboring there nearly six months he visited other places with similar results. In 1793 he returned to Sedgwick and became pastor of a newly organized Congregational church, which in 1805 attained to the largest membership of any religious body in Maine, numbering 189 communicants. Afterward Mr. Merrill, having changed his theological views, organized a Baptist church with a majority of his former congregation, of which he was pastor till his death, with the exception of the years 1814-'21, when he held a charge at Nottingham, Maine He was a founder and efficient friend of Waterville college, serving as trustee for twelve years after its organization. He was also elected to the legislature and was subsequently a member of the governor's council, accepting that office in order to serve more efficiently the cause of education. He published "Eight Letters on Open Communion" (1805); "Letters Occasioned by the Reverend Samuel Worcester's Two Discourses" (1807); "Mode and Subjects of Baptism Examined, with a Miniature History of Baptism" (1812) ; "Balaam Disappointed, a Thanksgiving Sermon at Nottingham West" (1815); and other occasional discourses.