Pierpoint grad­u­at­ed from Yale Coll­ege in 1804, worked as a tu­tor in New Haven, Con­nec­ti­cut, and Charles­town, South Car­o­li­na, then be­came a law­yer in 1812. Short­ly af­ter, he left the law and went into bus­i­ness, on­ly to leave it, too, and at­tend Har­vard Coll­ege to stu­dy the­ol­o­gy. In 1819 he be­came pas­tor of the Un­i­tar­i­an church in Hollis Street, Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts. His zeal against drink­ing and slav­ery made him re­sign in 1840. In 1845, he be­came pas­tor of a Un­i­tar­i­an con­gre­ga­tion in Troy, New York. He went on to ano­ther Un­i­tar­i­an pas­tor­ate in Med­ford, Mass­a­chu­setts (1849-1859). At the age of 70, he be­came a chap­lain in the Amer­i­can army, and was lat­er ap­point­ed a clerk in the Trea­su­ry De­part­ment in Washington, D.C. His works in­clude:

• Airs of Palestine, 1816
• Po­ems and Hymns, 1840

Sources

Hymns

1. Another Day Its Course Hath Run
2. Break Forth in Song, Ye Trees
3. Break the Bread and Pour the Wine
4. God Almighty and All Seeing
5. God of Mercy, Do Thou Never
6. God of Our Fathers, in Whose Sight
7. Gone are Those Great and Good
8. I Cannot Make Him Dead
9. Let the Still Air Rejoice
10. Mighty One, Whose Name Is Ho­ly
11. My God, I Thank Thee That the Night
12. O Thou to Whom, in An­cient Time
13. O Thou Who Art Above All Height
14. O Thou Who on the Whirlwind Rides
15. O’er Kedron’s Stream, and Salem’s Height
16. On This Stone, Now Laid with Pray­er
17. With Thy Pure Dews and Rain