WITHERSPOON
WITHERSPOON
bert C. Walker. He was a state presidential
elector on tlio Greole}- ami Thrown ticket in 1873;
was lieutenant-governor of Virginia in 1ST3, and
U.S. senator from Virginia, 1875-81. He was ap-
pointed by President Cleveland, consul at Hong
Kong, China, serving. 1885-89, subsequently re-
tiring from public life and residing at Wythe-
ville. Va. He was grand master of the Free-
in;isons of the state of Virginia. 1873-75, and of
the grand encampment of Kniglit Templars of
the United Slatt-s, 1883-80, and was regent of the
Smithsonian Institution. 1878-81. He also served
as deputy to the General Convention of the Prot-
estant Episcopal church in 1868, and in the same
capacity (when in the United States) until 1901
wlien he retired from public life.
WITHERSPOON, John, educator and signer, was born at Yester, Scotland, Feb. 5, HS'i; son of the Rev. James and Elizabeth (Welsh) Wither- spoon. His mother was a granddaugliter of John Knox. His father was a son of David Wither- spoon and a brother of John (after whom the signer was named), who emigrated to Ireland in 1695, and thence in 1734 to Williamsburg, S.C, where he died in December, 1737, being the first person buried in the graveyard of the Williams- burg Presbyterian church, which he helped to found. John Witherspoon, the signer, w^as graduated from Edinburgh university in 1742. On being licensed to preach he was invited to assist his father at the parish church of Yester, but receiving from the Earl of Lglinton the offer of the church at Beith, he accepted and was there ordained. While at Beith he went with a band of parishioners to view the battle of Falkirk (Jan. 17, 174G) and was taken prisoner by the Pretender's Higiilanders. He was imprisoned for a short time in a dungeon, sustaining a shock to his system from which he never fully recovered. In 1757 he was called to Paisley and began to make a reputation as an eloquent, forceful preacher and keen ecclesiastical debater. He was successively called to Dublin and to the Presbyterian cimrch at Rotterdam, Holland, but declined. He became prominent in the discus- sions leading to the rupture of tiie Scottish church. He was ofTered the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1706, but declined, preferring to remain in Scotland. In 1768, however, he decided to accept, and in August of that year was in- augurated. He canvassed the colonies for contri- butions, raising £1000 for the college; donated his own jirivate library, and enlarged the curriculum. He taught theology, introduced the study of in- ternational law, of French and of Hebrew, and widened the use of the lecture method. He ex- erted his influence, in behalf of the patriots; was a member of the provincial congre.ss in New Jersey, which gave that state a constitution in
May, 1770. In June, 1776, he was chosen a dele-
gate to the Continental congress. He belonged
to the more radical faction, favoi ing the adop-
tion of tiie Declaration of Independence, and
signing that instrument. He was a member of
the board of war, and later of the committee of
finance. The British burned him in efligy in
1776, and in that winter pillaged his country
home near Princeton. He resigned his seat in
1779, but returned to it in 1780, retiring in 1783.
He then returned to the college, and althougii he
remained as president until his death, he did
little if any more teaching. In 1785 he was chair-
man of the important committee appointed by
the Synod of New Jersey and Philadelphia to
compile the rules of government of the Presby-
terian church in America, and was either chair-
man or a member of various other ecclesiastical
committees. He became blind a year or two be-
fore his death. He was married, first in Scot-
land, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Mont-
gomery of Craig House, Ayrshire. She died
in 1789, aged 68. He married, secondly, in 1791,
the widow of Dr. Dill, a Philadelphia pln-sician.
By his first wife he had James (Princeton, 1770),
killed at the battle of Germantown in 1777; John
(Princeton, 1773), a phj-sician in South Carolina,
who was lost at sea in 1795; David (Princeton,
1774), a lawyer of Newbern, N.C., who married
the widow of General Nash; Ann, who married
Samuel S. Smith, afterward president of Prince-
ton; and Frances, who married Dr. David Ram-
say, the historian. By his second wife he had
two children, one d}-ing in infancy and the other
marrying the Rev. Dr. James S. Woods of Lewis-
town, Pa. Dr. Witherspoon received the hon-
orary degree of D.D. from Aberdeen in 1764. He
is the autlior of many books, sermons and mono-
graphs. Those of a theological nature are: Ec-
clesiastical Characteristics (1753); Essay on Justi-
fication (1756; several editions); Regeneration
(1764; several editions); Essays (3 vols., 1764);
Sermons on Practical Subjects (1768), and Practi-
cal Discourses (1768). His other works were
largely political and economic, and include: An
Address to the Inhabitants of Jamaica and other
West Indian Islands on behalf of the College of
New Jersey (Phila., 1772); The Dominion of Prov-
idence over the Passions of Men (lllQ); Essay on
Money, and Letters on Marriage. His works
were published in four volumes (Philadephia,
1800) and in nine volumes (Edinburgh, 1804).
Dr. Witherspoon's life was written by his suc-
cessor, Samuels. Smith (1795), but not published.
A colossal statue, erected in Fairmonnt park,
Philadelphia, was unveiled Oct. 20. 1876. Dr.
Witherspoon died in Princeton, N.J.. Nov. 15,
1794, and is buried in the President's lot, Prince-
ton cemetery.
