| Samuel Putnam Bancroft | |
| Birth Date: | 19 July 1846 |
| Death Place: | USA[1] |
| Nationality: | American |
| Other Names: | Putney Bancroft |
| Notable Works: | Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870 |
Samuel Putnam Bancroft (July 19, 1846 - October 11, 1929), also known as Samuel P. Bancroft, was an American Christian Scientist and an early student of Mary Baker Eddy.
As a young man Bancroft, who went by Putney,[2] worked as a shoe operative for Bancroft & Purington in Lynn, Massachusetts.[3] The factory was part-owned by his uncle Thomas Frederick Bancroft.[4] In 1870 he became interested in Christian Science after hearing about it from Daniel Spofford, another early student of Mary Baker Eddy's, and he then studied under Eddy herself.[3] His uncle, a deacon of the First Congregational Church, was not supportive of his association with Eddy and once commented "My boy, you will be ruined for life; it is the work of the devil."[5] [6]
For a short period, Bancroft tried unsuccessfully to establish his own practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts during 1874-1875. Bancroft advertised himself as a "Scientific Physician, Gives no Medicine."[7] Bancroft was generally loyal to Eddy,[8] but she had to warn him against idolizing her, telling him not to "make a Dagon of me" referring to the idol in 1 Samuel 5 in the Bible.[9] Bancroft helped Eddy organize the Christian Science Association in 1876 and the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881.[10] He wrote of Eddy, "[she] showed to her early pupils the loving-kindness of a mother, or the faithful devotion of a sister." However, he eventually became inactive in the Christian Science movement.[11]
In 1923, Bancroft wrote and privately published the book Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870.[12] The book was never officially endorsed by the church, but is still read by some Christian Scientists today, and is sold independently.[13] There have been some claims that it was suppressed;[14] [15] however, the Mary Baker Eddy Library, which is owned by the church, calls it "one of the most important reminiscences of Eddy's early years as a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science."[16]