This collection contains 14 sermons and drafts of sermons copied and composed by Reverend John Tyler, an Episcopalian preacher who lived in Norwich, Connecticut. Tyler based most of his sermons on at least one Biblical verse or story, often related to the concept of grace or salvation. His "Three Sermons on Confirmation," which utilize stories of the Apostles, are accompanied by a list of places and dates the sermons were preached, dated as late as 1821.
Around 1765, Tyler delivered a farewell address to the president, teachers, and students of Yale College, and in 1770 he delivered an oration at a funeral in Groton, Connecticut. Other sermons related to special occasions include Tyler's dedication for Trinity Church in Pomfret (now Brooklyn), Connecticut; introductory and concluding remarks for a conference; and a blessing for a school. One undated prayer, which incorporates text from the order for the burial of the dead in the Book of Common Prayer, laments the death of George Washington. This prayer is not in John Tyler's published eulogy on the life of General George Washington.
Tyler also copied passages from other authors' works on religion, and wrote an "Articuli Religionum" in Latin. The collection also includes Tyler's copy of a sermon that Reverend Naphtali Dagget preached at Yale College in 1763, while Tyler was a student there.
John Tyler was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on August 15, 1742, the son of John Tyler and Mary Doolittle. After graduating from Yale College in 1765, he received an ad eundem bachelor's degree (1767) and master's degree (1769) from King's College (now Columbia University). Tyler traveled to England in 1768, where he was ordained as a deacon and priest of the Church of England. He moved to Norwich, Connecticut, that November, and served as the pastor of a church in the city's Chelsea neighborhood for the rest of his life, with a hiatus from April-November 1778. He and his wife, Hannah Tracy (d. 1826), were married on May 6, 1770, and had one surviving son. John Tyler died on January 20, 1823.