BEARDSLEY, Eben Edwards, clergyman, born in Stepney, Connecticut, in 1808. His father was a farmer and large landholder. The son was graduated at Trinity College, Hartford. taking the highest honors in his class. He studied theology, was ordained 10 August 1835, and took charge of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, Connecticut On the death of the rector and principal of the Cheshire Episcopal academy, Mr. Beardsley accepted a temporary appointment, which continued, however, for several years. During this time a new Church edifice was erected, and after its completion he retired from the rectorship of the parish and confined himself exclusively to the academy until 1844, when he resigned and resumed the rectorship of the Church. He was made rector of St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, in 1848. During his ministry there the congregation grew from a small number gathered in a rented room to one occupying one of the finest stone Churches in the state. In 1854 the degree of died D. was conferred upon him by Trinity College, and in 1874 Columbia gave him that of LL.D. Dr. Beardsley has devoted much time to historical research, especially in Episcopal Church matters in Connecticut. He has published " The History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut from the Settlement of the Colony to the Death of Bishop Brownell in 1865" (2 vols., New York, 1865); " Memoir of Rev. John Eaton Smith " (1871); "Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, died D., Missionary of the Church of England in Connecticut, and First President of King's College, New York" (1874) ; "Life and Times of William Samuel Johnson. LL. D., First Senator in Congress from Connecticut, and President of Columbia College, New York" (Boston, 1876); and " Life and Correspondence of the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, died D., First Bishop of Connecticut, and of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America '" (1881).