WEBSTER, No.?11 (1758-18431. An Ameri can lexicographer. He was born in Hartford, Conn. lie entered Yale in 1774, served under his father, a captain of militia, in 1777, and then returned to college and graduated in 1778. From 1779 to 1781 he taught school in Hartford and studied law. hut receiving no en couragement to practice, opened, in 1782, a classical school at Goshen. N. Y., where he began the preparation of school books. In 1783 he returned to Hartford and published a spelling book, grammar, and reader, under the title of A' Grammatical Institute of the English Lan guage ( 1783-85). He also published Governor Winthrop's Journal: contributed in 1783 to the Connecticut Courant a series of papers signed llonorius in defense of the soldiers' pay bill; pub lished in 1784 Sketches of American Policy, ad vocating the formation of a new constitution, and in 1786 traveled in the South to procure the enactment of State copyright laws. In 17S7 he became superintendent of an Episcopal acad emy in Philadelphia, and when the Constitutional Convention closed published a pamphlet entitled Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal constitution. In December, 1787, lie established in New York The American Maga zine, but discontinued it after a year and re turned to Hartford in 1789. After some years of successful practice as a lawyer he returned to New York in 1793, where he started a daily newspaper, The Minerva, and a semi-weekly edi tion of Tlw Herald for the support of the na titmal administration, These names were after wards changed to The Commercial Adrerliser and The Yew York Spectator. In 1795 he wrote fir The Ilincrra a series of able articles under the signature of Curt his in defense of Jay's treaty with England, concluded the previous year. in 1798 he removed to New Haven, and published A Brif f History of Epidemies and Pestilential ( 1799) ; 7Iistntirrrl of Mr Origin and state of flanking Institutions and Insurance fi 0,1 a (1so2); Bights of Neutral Nations in Tim( of War (18001; A Compendious Dictionary (18021 : and .1 Philosophical and Practical Gram
mar of thr English LaupnorYe (18071; and began the preparation of his American Dictionary of ihc 1:wills's Language. .After devoting ten years ti the study of the English language he begin his diet ittliary anew, spent two months in Paris in i524 and eight at Cambridge, England, and returned to America in 1s25 to complete his great work, the first edition of which was pub lished in 1825.
From 1812 to 1822 Webster resided at Am herst, Mass., where he aided in founding Amherst College. He was for several years president of its board of trustees, and also represented Am herst in the State Legislature. He had pre viously represented New' Haven in the Connecti cut Legislature and bad been a judge of one of the State courts. He returned to New Haven in 1822, where he died, May 28, 1843. Among Webster's works, exclusive of his Dictionary, were: Dissertations on the English Language (1780); The Revolution in France (1794) ; Let. ters to Dr. Priestley (1800) ; Origin, History. and Connertion of the Languages of Western Asia and of Europe (1807); Letters to a Young Gen tleman Commencing His Education (1823) ; Manual of Useful Studies (1832) ; History of the United States (rev. ed. 1838) ; and A Col lection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects (1843). Ills Synopsis of in Twenty Languages, written about 1817, has never been published. See the memoir by Good rich prefixed to the later editions of the diction ary (last ed, 1890), and Scudder, Noah Webster (Boston, 1882).