American clergyman, scientist, and politician Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823) was a member of the Ohio Company of Associates and coauthor of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

Manasseh Cutler, the third child and eldest son of Hezekiah and Susanna Cutler, was born on May 13, 1742, in Killingly, Conn. He grew to manhood on his parents' farm. After graduating from Yale in 1765, he taught school in Dedham, Mass. The following year he married Mary Balch, and the couple moved to Martha's Vineyard, where Cutler ran a store. Cutler studied law, and by 1767 he was practicing in the Court of Common Pleas. The following year he returned to Yale to receive a master of arts degree and then began his study for the ministry. In September 1771 he was ordained and installed as pastor in the Congregational Church at Ipswich (later Hamilton), Mass.

Cutler's first church was to be his lifelong parish, although he frequently...