Arthur, William
clergyman, author, was born in 1796 in Antrim, Ireland. He was graduated at Belfast college, came to the United States, studied law for a short time, and was then called to the baptist ministry. After preaching in Vermont and western New York, he was settled as pastor of the Calvary baptist church of Albany, N. Y., where he remained from 1855 to 1863. He afterward removed to Schenectady, where he published a magazine called the Antiquarian, to whose pages he contributed much curious learning on a variety of topics. He published an Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. Dr. Arthur was noted for his attainments in the classics and in history, both sacred and profane. His son, Chester Allan Arthur, was twenty-first president of the United States. He died Oct. 27, 1875, in Newtonville, N. Y.