The Biographical Dictionary of America/Armitage, Thomas

ARMITAGE, Thomas, clergyman, was born at Pontefract, Yorkshire, Eng., Aug. 2, 1819. He was licensed as a local preacher by the Wesleyans, delivering his first sermon in his sixteenth year. He imbibed political opinions which led him to the United States in 1838, settled in New York, entered the Methodist ministry, and labored as a circuit preacher for ten years. Doubts assailed him as to the doctrine of sinless perfection, and in regard to the Methodist church government; and in 1848 he left that denomination to join the Baptists. He was baptized in the Pearl street church, Albany, ordained a few months later, and instilled as pastor of the Norfolk street church, July 1, 1848. The congregation later erected a new place of worship, the "Fifth Avenue Baptist church," where Dr. Armitage ministered to them until his death. In 1850 he was largely instrumental in founding the American Bible Union, of which, in 1856, he became the president. Dr. Armitage was an eloquent and powerful preacher and a cultivated scholar. He was deeply interested in the revision of the scriptures, particularly in regard to the translation of the Greek word for baptism. His published writings are: "Lectures on Preaching, its Ideal and Inner Life" (1880), and a "History of the Baptists" (1886). Georgetown college, Kentucky, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. in 1853, and later gave him that of LL.D. He died Jan. 20, 1896.