John Sylvester John Gardiner

Who was John Sylvester John Gardiner?

John Sylvester John Gardiner, aka John S. J. Gardiner, was Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, president of Boston's Anthology Club, and active in the Boston Athenæum.

Born in Wales and in large part educated in England, Gardiner was a pupil of the famous Dr. Samuel Parr. He was for 37 years the best-known and leading Episcopal clergyman of Boston. Trained for the law, he turned to divinity and for 25 years was rector of Trinity Church, Boston. Despite this conservative bent, he was on very amiable sociable terms with his Unitarian brethren. George Ticknor studied Latin and Greek under Gardiner's tutelage.

His only daughter married John Perkins Cushing, a wealthy China opium smuggler, in 1830. The town of Belmont, Massachusetts is named after their estate.