DAMON, David, clergyman, born in East Sudbury (now Wayland), Massachusetts, 12 September 1788; died in Reading, Massachusetts, in 1843. His father was a farmer, barely able to support his family, so that the son was dependent for his education entirely upon his own exertions. He prepared himself for College at Phillips Andover academy, and was graduated at Harvard in 1811. He was one of the founders of the Harvard Lyceum, at Cambridge, in 1810-'11, and was the third scholar in a class of which Edward Everett and N. L. Frothingham were the first and second. He studied theology at Andover, but was not graduated, was licensed to preach 22 November 1813, ordained 1 February 1815, and installed as pastor of the Unitarian Church in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He occupied various parishes in New England until 1835, when he settled in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. In January 1841, he delivered the annual sermon before the legislature of Massachusetts, and in May of the same year the Dudleian lecture at Harvard. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by his alma mater in 1843. His death was caused by apoplexy, which attacked him while he was officiating at the funeral of his friend, Edmund Parker. His publications consisted principally of sermons and addresses.