STEARNS, Samuel, author, born in Bolton, Massachusetts, in 1747; died in Brattleborough, Vermont, 8 August, 1819. He became a physician and astronomer, practising his profession first in Worcester, Massachusetts, then in New York, and finally in Brattleborough, Vermont For his supposed loyalty to King George III. he suffered greatly from the persistent attacks of the Sons of Liberty, and was confined for nearly three years in a prison in Worcester, Massachusetts While he was a resident of New York he made the calculations for the first nautical almanac in this country, which he published, 20 December, 1782. He edited the "Philadelphia Magazine" in 1789, and published "Tour to London and Paris" (London, 1790); "Mystery of Animal Magnetism" (1791); "American Oracle" (1791); and "The American Herbal, or Materia Mediea" (Walpole, New Hampshire, 1801). He labored twenty-eight years on a "Medical Dispensatory," and to obtain information for it travelled for nine years in Europe and this country, but died before its completion. On the list of subscribers for this work were the names of George Washington and Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia.