Phillips, Samuel

Related Category: Education: Biographies

1752–1802, American educator and politician, b. North Andover, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1771. A member of the Massachusetts provincial congress (1775–80) and a delegate to the state constitutional convention (1779–80), he served in the state senate (1780–1801, except for one year). He is best known, however, as the founder of Phillips Academy at Andover (opened 1778), a leading preparatory school for boys. His uncle, John Phillips (1719–95), the founder of Phillips Exeter Academy, provided financial backing. Samuel Phillips died shortly after his inauguration (1801) as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

See C. M. Fuess, An Old New England School (1917).