Edward Gantt was an Episcopal

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Senate of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (1801–1804).

Early life

Edward Gantt was born in Prince George's County, Maryland

Prince George's County, Maryland

Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation....

 in 1746, the son of Mary and Thomas Gantt IV. He received his bachelor of arts from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in 1762, and thereafter studied medicine with Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a Christian Universalist, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania....

 in Philadelphia and in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. Gantt received the degree of M.D., thereafter entering in the practice of medicine in Somerset County, Maryland

Somerset County, Maryland

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*53.5% White*42.3% Black*0.3% Native American*0.7% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.7% Two or more races*1.5% Other races*3.3% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

. Sensing a call to ministry, he went to England where he obtained orders in 1770.

Ministry

Gantt returned home and for a time officiated in his native parish, Christ Church, Calvert County. On January 28, 1776 he began to preach at All Hallow’s Parish in Worcester County. Four years later he became rector of his native parish, and sustained himself by practicing medicine. In 1795 Gantt moved to Georgetown in the District of Columbia. His work in Washington continued to combine ministry and medicine as indicated by an invoice in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 Historical Association's archives; the doctor’s bill for President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

’s household dated March 22, 1802, lists the medical services provided to several servants by Dr. Edward Gantt.

From President Jefferson, Dr. Gantt received a supply of smallpox vaccine

Smallpox vaccine

The smallpox vaccine was the first successful vaccine to be developed. The process of vaccination was discovered by Edward Jenner in 1796, who acted upon his observation that milkmaids who caught the cowpox virus did not catch smallpox...

; soon after January 17, 1802 he vaccinated Miami chief Little Turtle and a group of Miami diplomats who were in Washington, The supply sufficed to vaccinate over three hundred persons connected with the Executive Mansion.

Chaplain of the Senate

Starting on December 9, 1800 through November 6, 1804, Gantt served as Chaplain of the Senate.

After Washington

About 1807, under the auspices of Bishop Thomas John Claggett

Thomas John Claggett

Thomas John Claggett was the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America to be consecrated on American soil and the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.-Early family life:...

, he went to Kentucky, in the interests of the Episcopal Church.

Personal life

Edward Gantt and Ann Stoughton Sloss, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Sloss, were married June 26, 1768, by the Rev. Thomas John Claggett, Gantt's cousin, later to be Bishop of Maryland. Their fifteen children include: Thomas Sloss Gantt , William Stoughton Gantt, Edward Sloss Gantt and John Gantt.

Gantt died near Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, in 1837.