Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Knox, Hugh

KNOX, Hugh, clergyman, b. in Ireland about 1733; d. in Santa Cruz, W. I., in October, 1790. He emigrated to this country in 1751, and found employment as assistant teacher under the Rev. John Rodgers at Middletown, Del. He fell in with frivolous companions, and on one occasion entertained them with an imitation of Dr. Rodgers's preaching. Overcome with remorse for this act of irreverence, he went to Princeton and applied for admission to the college, with the intention of devoting himself to the Christian ministry. He was graduated in 1754, and, after studying theology a year longer, was ordained, and went to Saba in the West Indies as pastor of the Reformed Dutch church on that island. In 1772 he resigned his charge in order to become pastor of the Presbyterians who had settled on the Danish island of Santa Cruz. Alexander Hamilton was placed under Mr. Knox's instruction in boyhood, and remained his life-long friend. He received the degree of D. D. from Glasgow university, and published two volumes of sermons (Glasgow, 1772).