List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists

A number of notable people have considered themselves Unitarians, Universalists, and following the merger of these denominations in the United States and Canada in 1961, Unitarian Universalists. Additionally, there are persons who, because of their writings or reputation, are considered to have held Unitarian or Universalist beliefs. Individuals who held unitarian (nontrinitarian) beliefs but were not affiliated with Unitarian organizations are often referred to as "small 'u unitarians. The same principle can be applied to those who believed in universal salvation but were not members of Universalist organizations. This article, therefore, makes the distinction between capitalized "Unitarians" and "Universalists" and lowercase "unitarians" and "universalists".

The Unitarians and Universalists are groups that existed long before the creation of Unitarian Universalism.

Early Unitarians did not hold Universalist beliefs, and early Universalists did not hold Unitarian beliefs. But beginning in the nineteenth century the theologies of the two groups started becoming more similar.

Additionally, their eventual merger as the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) did not eliminate divergent Unitarian and Universalist congregations, especially outside the US. Even within the US, some congregations still keep only one of the two names, "Unitarian" or "Universalist". However, with only a few exceptions, all belong to the UUA—even those that maintain dual affiliation (e.g., Unitarian and Quaker). Transcendentalism was a movement that diverged from contemporary American Unitarianism but has been embraced by later Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists.

In Northern Ireland, Unitarian churches are officially called "Non-Subscribing Presbyterian", but are informally known as "Unitarian" and are affiliated with the Unitarian churches of the rest of the world.

A

Francis Ellingwood Abbot (1836–1903) – Unitarian minister who led a group that attempted to liberalize the Unitarian constitution and preamble. He later helped found the Free Religious Association.
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) – women's rights advocate and first Second Lady and the second First Lady of the United States
James Luther Adams (1901–1994) – Unitarian theologian.
John Adams (1735–1826) – second president of the United States.
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)
Joseph Henry Allen (1820–1898) – American Unitarian scholar and minister
Arthur J. Altmeyer (1891–1972) – father of Social Security
J. M. Andrews (1871–1956) – Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (a Non-subscribing Presbyterian member)
L.F.W. Andrews (1802-1875) - American Southern Universalist minister and a prodigious publisher of denominational and secular newspapers.
Thomas Andrews (1873–1912) – Master-shipbuilder of the RMS Oceanic (1899), "Big Four", and Olympic-class ocean liners (a Non-subscribing Presbyterian member)
Tom Andrews (born 1953) – Former U.S. Representative from Maine, current United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) – Quaker
Robert Aspland (1782–1845) – English Unitarian minister, editor and activist, founder of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
Robert Brook Aspland (1805–1869) – English Unitarian minister and editor, son of Robert Aspland

B

Samuel Bache (1804–1876) – English Unitarian minister
E. Burdette Backus (1888–1955) – Unitarian Humanist minister (originally a Universalist)
Sara Josephine Baker (1873–1945) – physician and public health worker.
Aaron Bancroft (1755–1839) – Congregationalist Unitarian minister
John Bardeen (1908–1991) – physicist, Nobel Laureate 1956 (inventing the transistor) and in 1972 (superconductivity)
Ysaye Maria Barnwell (born 1946) – member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, founded the Jubilee Singers, a choir at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C.
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) – composer.
Clara Bancroft Beatley (1858–1923) – educator, lecturer, author
Christopher C. Bell (born 1933) – author
Ami Bera (born 1965) – U.S. Representative for California
Henry Bergh (1811–1888) – founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Tim Berners-Lee (born 1955) – inventor of the World Wide Web.
Paul Blanshard (1892–1980) – activist.
Chester Bliss Bowles (1901–1986) – Connecticut Governor and diplomat.
Alice Williams Brotherton (1848–1930), poet and magazine writer
Olympia Brown (1835–1926) – suffragist, Universalist minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent Ohio
John A. Buehrens (born 1947) – president of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1993–2001
Charles Bulfinch (1763–1844) – most notable for being Architect of the Capitol. Co-founder, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)
Ralph Wendell Burhoe (1911–1997) – scholar Co-founder, All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.)
Walter Bradford Cannon (1871–1945) – experimental physiologist
Lant Carpenter (1780–1840) – English Unitarian minister, author and educator
Russell Lant Carpenter (1816–1892) – Unitarian minister. Son and biographer of Dr. Lant Carpenter
William Herbert Carruth (1859–1924) – educator, poet, President of Pacific Coast Conference of the Unitarian Church
Samuel Carter (1805–1878) – British MP and early railway solicitor
Lee Carter (born 1987) — delegate for Virginia's 50th House of Delegates district (according to his campaign website, he and his family attend their local Unitarian Universalist Church)
Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) – Manufacturer, Unitarian, founder of local government in Britain.
Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) – Unitarian, then an agnostic and, British Prime Minister.
George Leonard Chaney (1836-1922) – Boston Unitarian minister who served the city’s Hollis Street Church for 15 years. Later moved to Atlanta to organize the first Unitarian church in that city.
Augusta Jane Chapin (1836–1905) – American Universalist minister, educator and activist for women's rights
Jesse Chickering (1797–1855) – Unitarian minister and economist
Brock Chisholm (1896–1971) – director, World Health Organization
Andrew Inglis Clark (1848–1907) – Tasmanian politician. Responsible for the adoption of the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation by the Parliament of Tasmania
Grenville Clark (1882–1931) – author
James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888) – Unitarian minister, theologian and author
Daniel Bragg Clayton (1817-1906) - Known as D.B. Clayton was an American Southern Universalist minister who was instrumental in spreading and defending Universalism in the South.
Stanley Cobb (1887–1968) – neurologist and psychiatrist
Robert Collyer (1823-1912) -- Unitarian clergyman of Chicago and New York, notable for his earnest, direct sermons and vocal support of abolition and women's suffrage.
Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) – American historian and biographer of Theodore Parker
Maria Cook (1779–1835) – first woman to be recognized as a Universalist preacher.
Mary Leggett Cooke (1852–1938) – Unitarian minister; member of the Iowa Sisterhood
William David Coolidge (1873–1975) – inventor, physician, research director
Norman Cousins (1915–1990) – editor and writer, Unitarian friend

D

Cyrus Dallin (1861–1944) – American sculptor
Ferenc Dávid (born as Franz David Hertel, often rendered as Francis David or Francis Davidis) (1510–1579) – Transylvanian priest, minister and bishop, founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, first to use the word "Unitarian" to describe his faith
George de Benneville (1703–1793) – Universalist
Karl W. Deutsch (1912–1992) – international political scientist
Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) – prison reformer in New England.
John H. Dietrich (1878–1957)
Madelyn Dunham (1922–2008) – grandmother of U.S. President Barack Obama
Stanley Armour Dunham (1918–1992) – grandfather of Barack Obama

E

Richard Eddy (1828–1906) – minister and author of 1886 book Universalism in America.
Charles Carroll Everett (1829–1900) – Unitarian minister and Harvard Divinity professor from Maine
Charles Wesley Emerson (1837–1908) – Unitarian minister and founder of Emerson College

F

Sophia Lyon Fahs (1876–1978) – liberal religious educator
Joseph L. Fisher (1914–1992)
Allen Fuller (1798-1864) - Northern minister who assisted in the spread of Universalism in the American South.
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) – inventor, engineer
János Füzi (1776–1833) – Unitarian minister, teacher

G

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) – British novelist and social reformer
Frank Gannett (1876–1957) – newspaper publisher
Thomas Field Gibson (1803–1889) – English manufacturer who aided the welfare of the Spitalfields silk weavers
Henry Giles (1809–1882) – British-American Unitarian minister and writer
Hilary Goodridge – the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Eleanor Gordon (1852–1942) – minister and member of the Iowa Sisterhood.
Mike Gravel (1930–2021) – U.S. Senator; 2008 Democratic presidential candidate
Mary H. Graves (1839–1908) – minister, literary editor, writer
Dana Greeley (1908–1986) – the first president of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Chester Greenwood (1858–1937) – inventor
Gary Gygax (1938–2008) – game designer and creator of Dungeons & Dragons, called himself a Christian, "albeit one that is of the Arian (Unitarian) persuasion."

H

Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) – American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman
George Ernest Hale (1884–1966), Unitarian minister in South Australia
Ellen L. Hamilton (1921–1996) – artist, author, advocate for homeless teens, and member of UUA Board of Trustees (1973–1977).
Phebe Ann Coffin Hannaford (1829–1921) – first lesbian minister, biographer
Frances Harper (1825–1911) – abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, and writer; one of the first African-American women to be published in the United States. Unitarian.
Donald S. Harrington (1914–2005)
John Hayward – philosopher of religion and the arts
Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) – self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist
Aubrey Franklin Hess (1874-1935) – progressive American theologian and educator.
Iacob Heraclid (1527–1563) – Greek Maltese adventurer, missionary, Prince of Moldavia
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) – Unitarian Minister and member of the Secret Six who funded John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
Lotta Hitschmanova (1909–1990) – founder, Unitarian Service Committee of Canada
Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) – author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
David Hubel (1926–2013) – Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine 1981
Charles Hudson (1795–1881) – Universalist minister and politician
Harm Jan Huidekoper (1776–1854) – businessman, essayist and lay theologian, a vice president of the American Unitarian Association, and co-founder of the Meadville Theological School
Michelle Huneven (born August 14, 1953) – American novelist and journalist. She attends Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, California.

J

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) – third president of the U.S., unitarian but not affiliated with any sect
Joseph Johnson (1738–1809) – English publisher
Jenkin Lloyd Jones (1843–1918) – Unitarian missionary and minister in the United States
Richard Lloyd Jones (1873–1963) – son of Jenkin Lloyd Jones, editor and publisher of the Tulsa Tribune, also co-founder of All Souls Unitarian Church in 1921.
Thomas Starr King (1824–1864) – minister who during his career served both in Universalist and in Unitarian churches.
Penney Kome (born 1948) – Canadian author and journalist

L

William L. Langer (1896–1977) – historian of diplomacy
Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk(ová) (1850–1923) – wife of first President of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937) – first President of Czechoslovakia
Bernard Maybeck (1862–1957) – architect, Unitarian
Robert Millikan (1868–1953) – Nobel Laureate in Physics 1923 for determining the charge of the electron, taught at Caltech in Pasadena CA
Théodore Monod (1902–2000) – French activist. Founding president of the Francophone Unitarian Association
Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) – anthropologist and social biologist
Christopher Moore – founder of the Chicago Children's Choir
Arthur E. Morgan (1878–1975) – human engineer and college president

N

Isaac Newton (1642–1726) – English physicist and mathematician
Maurine Neuberger (1907–2000) – U.S. Senator
Andrews Norton (1786–1853) – Once known as the “Unitarian Pope”
Joseph Nye (1937-2025) Rhodes Scholar and former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

O

Keith Olbermann (born 1959) – news anchor, political commentator, and sports journalist
Mary White Ovington (1865–1951) – NAACP founder
Theodore Parker (1810–1860) – Unitarian minister and transcendentalist
Linus Pauling (1901–1994) – Nobel Laureate for Peace and for Chemistry
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979) – astronomer and astrophysicist.
William James Perry, (born 1927) – former United States Secretary of Defense
William T. Pheiffer (1898–1986) – American lawyer/politician
Utah Phillips (1935–2008) – American singer, songwriter and homeless advocate
William Pickering (1910–2004) – space explorer
Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006) – composer
John Platts (1775–1837) – English Unitarian minister and author
Van Rensselaer Potter (1911–2001) – global bioethicist
James Relly (c. 1722–1778) – Universalist
Amber E. Robinson (1867–1961), educator, postmaster, poet, reporter, and social reformer
Alfred Ronalds (1802–1860) – British author of The Fly-fisher's Entomology and Australian pioneer
Emily Ronalds (1795–1889) – British social reformer and educationalist
Hugh Ronalds (1760–1833) – British horticulturalist and nurseryman
Francis Ronalds (1788–1873) – English inventor of the electric telegraph
Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) – very active in the Universalist movement, although never technically joined a Universalist congregation
Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979) – U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
Arthur Schlesinger (1917–2007) – American historian
Ferdinand Schumacher (1822–1908) – one of the founders of companies which merged to become the Quaker Oats Company.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) – Nobel Peace Laureate 1953, late in life unitarian; honorary member of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (Unitarian Friend)
Martha Sharp (1905–1999) – American Unitarian who was named by the Yad Vashem organization as "Righteous Among the Nations."
Waitstill Sharp (1902–1983) – Unitarian minister who along with his wife Martha were named by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations."
Lemuel Shaw (1781–1861) – Unitarian and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Under his leadership, the court convicted Abner Kneeland, a former Universalist, of blasphemy.
Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) – Nobel Laureate in Economics 1978, artificial intelligence pioneer
Fred Small (born 1952) – Singer-songwriter and UU minister.
Caroline Soule (1824–1903) – American writer, ordained Universalist minister, first woman ordained as a minister in the UK in 1880
Catherine Helen Spence (1825–1910) – Australian suffragist and political reformer
Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) – American abolitionist and anarchist.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) – American suffragist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement
Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879–1962) – Arctic explorer and champion of Native American rights
Lucy Stone (1818—1893) American orator, abolitionist, and suffragist
Dirk Jan Struik (1894–2000) – mathematician
Jedediah Strutt (1726–1797) – pioneer cotton spinner and philanthropic employer.
Margaret Sutton (1903–2001) – author of the Judy Bolton series and other children's books
Frances C. Swift (1834-1908) – native-born Southerner and influential female lay leader in the early days of the spread of Unitarianism in the South. President of the Atlanta Equal Suffrage Association.
Jude Sylvan (b. 1982) – American poet, author, performer, producer, and performing artist and UU minister.

T

William Howard Taft (1857–1930) – president of the United States (1909–1913) and chief justice of the United States
Joyce Tischler – Founder of Animal Legal Defense Fund, referred to as the "Mother of Animal Law."
Clyde Tombaugh (1906–1997) – American astronomer who discovered Pluto
Amos G. Throop (1811–1894) – Founder of Throop University, which later became the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he was also the city's third mayor. Throop Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, a Unitarian Universalist congregation founded in 1923, was named after him.

V

William Vidler (1758–1816) – English Universalist and Unitarian minister
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) – writer

W

George Wald (1906–1997) – Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1967
Zach Wahls (born 1991) – LGBT activist, Iowa State Senator
Caroline Farrar Ware (1899–1990) – historian and social activist
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) – lawyer and statesman
Alfred Tredway White (1846–1921) – housing reformer and philanthropist
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) – philosopher (Unitarian Friend)
Theodore Paul Wright (1895–1970) – aeronautical engineer
Quincy Wright (1890–1970) – author of A Study of War
Whitney M. Young (1921–1971) – social work administrator