CHAPTER XVI.

A MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN WITHERSPOON, D.D., LL.D., THE SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY.

DR. WITHERSPOON was born in the parish of Yester, Scotland, on the 5th of February, 1722. His father, the Rev. James Witherspoon, was the minister of the parish church, and he is said to have been an uncommonly able and faithful preacher. His mother, a devoted Christian woman, was a lineal descendant of the great Scottish Reformer, John Knox; and also of his son-in-law, the famous John Welsh, minister of Ayr, whose wife, Elizabeth, was the youngest daughter of John Knox, a woman in every respect worthy of such relationships. Elizabeth's mother, Margaret Stewart, was a daughter of Lord Ochiltree; and "the family of Ochiltree was of the blood royal."

At the age of fourteen Dr. Witherspoon entered the University of Edinburgh, where he pursued his studies for seven years. Upon being licensed to preach, he was invited to be an assistant minister with his father, with the right of succession; but receiving from the Earl of Eglinton, with the hearty consent of the people, a presentation to the parish church of Beith, in the west of Scotland, he decided to settle at Beith, and there he was ordained to the work of the ministry. After a few years he was translated to Paisley, a large and flourishing town celebrated for its various manufactures; and here he remained until, at the earnest request of the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, he left Scotland to take charge of this institution, which he did in the summer of 1768.

Dr. Witherspoon was the sixth President of the College.

During his residence at Paisley he was invited to Dublin, Ireland, to take the charge of a large congregation in that city. He was also called to the city of Rotterdam, in Holland, and to

Dundee, Scotland. All these calls he declined, being unwilling to give up his important charge at Paisley, and to enter anew upon the work of a parish minister and the formation of personal and family friendships. And when first invited to become the head of the College of New Jersey, he thought it his duty to decline the offer, especially in view of the fact that his family were unwilling to leave their native land for the trials. and hardships of a new country. But, in the providence of God, he was led to review his decision, and both he and his family came to the conclusion that it would be their duty to go to America, should the offer above mentioned be renewed.*

* After this sketch was begun and nearly finished, the writer received from his friend the Rev. Dr. C. C. Beatty, of Steubenville, Ohio, copies of two or three letters written by his grandfather, the Rev. Charles Beatty, during a visit to Scotland in 1767. As these letters have a special value in connection with the subject of this memoir, the following extracts are here subjoined. The letters are addressed to the Rev. R. Treat, of Abington, Pennsylvania. Both Mr. Beatty and Mr. Treat were at this time Trustees of the College of New Jersey.

In his letter of the date of October 15, 1767, Mr. Beatty says, "On Saturday I went to Paisley, sent for Dr. Witherspoon to my Inn, who in a very friendly manner invited me to lodge at his house. At first I was reluctant, imagining that I could not be agreeable to Mrs. Witherspoon no more than she would be to me, according to the idea I had formed of her. However, upon his insisting upon it, I consented; and I must confess I was very agreeably disappointed, for instead of finding a poor, peevish, reserved, discontented, &c., I found a well-looking, genteel, open, friendly woman,—which perhaps you will be surprised at. I preached for the Dr. both parts of the day, and he lectured only; he appears to me, as I before observed to you, to be a good speaker and preacher, tho' not a fine speaker. I cannot think he is so old as you have heard,-tho' I did not ask his age. I see him make no use of spectacles, neither in public nor private. Mrs. Witherspoon, on Monday before I came away, having an opportunity, made some modest apology to me for her conduct when Mr. Stockton was there: she seemed to be much concerned for it. She told me to this effect: that at that time, and for some time before, she was in a weak state of health, and that in that situation things appeared very gloomy to her,-crossing the sea, and that her husband might soon die, and she be left in a strange land, &c. I need say nothing to you now about choosing a President for Jersey College,—for before now you will be fixed either by a choice in America or here. Dr. Witherspoon has had a call to a congregation in Dublin this last summer, but he declined it. In short, he told me that the call to the College had been much on his mind, and that nothing had ever given him❞—The words immediately following have become illegible, but the form of expression indicates the great difficulty he had had in coming to a decision whether to accept or decline the invitation to the College.

Upon Dr. Witherspoon's refusal to accept the proffered appointment, the Trustees chose the Rev. Samuel Blair, a graduate of the College, but at this time pastor of the South Church, Boston, President, with the expectation that he would enter upon the duties of the office in the autumn of 1768. Learning that Dr. Witherspoon would probably accept the presidency of the College should it again be tendered to him, with a promptness that did him the highest honor Mr. Blair at once resigned his claim to the office, that the Trustees might have it in their power to elect Dr. Witherspoon a second time. This they did on the 9th of December, 1767, and they did it unanimously.

Released by the Presbytery from his pastoral charge, he took his final leave of the church at Paisley in the month of May, 1768, preaching a farewell discourse from the words in Acts xx. 26, 27: "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." It appears from the minutes of the Trustees, of the date of August 17, 1768, in an order respecting the time when Dr. Witherspoon's salary should begin, that his connection with the church at Paisley ended the 15th of May preceding. And as this was a Sabbath-day, it was probably the day on which his farewell discourse was delivered. The month, but not the day of the month, is prefixed to this discourse in the posthumous edition of his works, printed and published by W. W. Woodward, Philadelphia, in the year of our Lord 1800.

It is said that a wealthy relative promised to make the Doctor his heir if he would not go to America.

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Under the date of October 29, 1767, Mr. Beatty adds, "I had the other day letters from some of my friends in Edinburgh. One writes that there was a subtle letter wrote over from Princeton, under a pretence to encourage Dr. Witherspoon to accept the call of N. Jersey College; but it was quite the reverse. Complaint is also made that the Synod wants to take what was collected in Scotland out of the hands of the corporation; and that the widows' fund will, &c.,—but I shall be able to set that matter in another light."

Mr. Beatty had undertaken an agency, by the appointment of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, to collect moneys for the establishment of a fund for the aid of ministers, their widows and families.

Dr. Witherspoon and his family sailed from Glasgow, and, after a tedious voyage, arrived at Philadelphia on Saturday, the 6th of August, 1768. In that city they were hospitably entertained at the house of Mr. Andrew Hodge; and when in a measure recovered from the fatigues of their passage, they left Philadelphia for Princeton. Here they were received with every demonstration of respect and kindness, and became for a time the guests of Richard Stockton, Esq., the gentleman through whom Dr. Witherspoon received the intelligence of his first election to the presidency of the College, and who, being in London at that time, went to Scotland to confer with Dr. Witherspoon on the subject of his removal to America. On the evening of the Doctor's arrival in Princeton the College edifice was illuminated; "and not only the whole village, but the adjacent country, and even the Province at large, shared in the joy of the occasion."

The reception given him was very grateful to his feelings, and he is said to have alluded to it in modest and becoming terms in his first public discourse after his accession to the presidency.

His inauguration took place on the 17th of August, 1768, and on this occasion, or at the ensuing Commencement, on the 28th of the next month, he delivered an address in Latin on "The Union of Piety and Science." Although the College was in much repute at home, and was favorably known in Great Britain. and Ireland, Dr. Witherspoon's administration of its affairs added much to its reputation and usefulness.

It is said by President Green that "the method of instruction by lecture had never been practised in this institution till it was introduced by Dr. Witherspoon," and that "he delivered lectures on four different subjects, namely, on Composition, Taste, and Criticism, on Moral Philosophy, on Chronology and History, and on Divinity."

His lectures on these several subjects, with the exception of those on Chronology and History, or the outlines of them, are published in Woodward's edition of his works.

* Dr. Green's Address before the Alumni Association in 1840.

We are inclined to doubt the accuracy of the statement that Dr. Witherspoon was the first at this College to use the method of teaching by lecture, as something very like it must have been employed by President Edwards on the few occasions on which he met the students.* And in his letter of October 19, 1757, to the Trustees, he expresses his willingness, in case he should accept their offer, "to do the whole work of a Professor of Divinity in public and private lectures." It may have been, generally, and in some parts of the curriculum was the case, that the topics or theses included in the recitation were discussed by the teacher at the close of that exercise rather than apart from it.

In an account of the College published by order of the Trustees in 1764, four years before Dr. Witherspoon's arrival in this country, the author of the account, after mentioning the methods of instruction pursued in the College, speaks of them as offering "advantages which are seldom attainable in the usual method of teaching by lecture." (See account of President Finley's administration, page 266.)

Dr. Green also attributes to Dr. Witherspoon the introduction of the study of the Hebrew and French languages into the College course of instruction. This, so far as the Hebrew is concerned, is unquestionably an error. In the account of the College just referred to, it is expressly said that "the greater number [of the students], especially such as are educating for the service of the Church, are initiated into the Hebrew." And in his letter mentioned above, President Edwards says, "It would be out of my way to spend time in constant teaching of the languages, unless it be the Hebrew tongue, which I should be willing to improve myself in by instructing others;" the implication from which is that even in Mr. Burr's time the Hebrew language was made a College study. And in the accounts of the College published in 1764, it is said, "They now

* Since the above was written, the writer has learned that Mr. Lewis Evans, of Philadelphia, was employed by President Burr in the summer of 1751 to deliver twelve lectures on Natural Philosophy, and that these lectures were accompanied with experiments in electricity.