Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American Congregational minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts. Early life Mayhew was born at Martha's Vineyard, being fifth in descent from Thomas Mayhew (1592–1682), an early settler and the grantee (1641) of Martha's Vineyard and adjacent islands. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. (1622–1657), his son John (d. 1689) and John's son, Experience Mayhew (1673–1758), were active missionaries among the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and the vicinity. Mayhew graduated from Harvard College in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of D.D. from the University of Aberdeen. Theological views So liberal were his theological views that when he was to be ordained minister of the West Church in Boston in 1747, only two ministers attended the first council called for the ordination, and it was necessary to summon a second council. Mayhew's preaching made his church essentially the first Unitarian Congregational church in New England, though it was never officially Unitarian. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of Christ, and salvation by character. Like other Unitarians of this time, Mayhew believed God punished whole communities if the people were not moral and pious enough. On March 20, 1760, Boston experienced a fire that consumed over three hundred buildings and left about a thousand people without homes. Three days later, Mayhew preached a sermon that proclaimed that God had caused the fire to chastise Bostonians. Mayhew declared that God had “determined to let loose his wrath upon the city to ‘rebuke us in his anger, and chasten us in his hot displeasure’. ” Therefore, Mayhew said, God “caused his wind to blow; and suddenly raised it to such a height, that all endeavours to put a stop to the raging flames, were ineffectual”. Mayhew finished his sermon by warning the people of Boston that unless they repented and reformed enough, they should expect an even greater punishment. Political views In politics, Mayhew bitterly opposed the Stamp Act, and urged the necessity of colonial union (or communion) to secure colonial liberties. He was famous, in part, for his 1750 and 1754 election sermons espousing American rights — the cause of liberty and the right and duty to resist tyranny; other famous sermons included "The Snare Broken," 1766. His sermons and writings were a powerful influence in the development of the movement for liberty and independence. The extent of