Witherspoon, John, 1723-1794

John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey (1768–1794; now Princeton University) became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution.

Born in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland, he attended the Haddington Grammar School before obtaining a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the university to study divinity. Witherspoon became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith from 1745 to 1758; from 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh Kirk, Paisley. At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, Witherspoon finally accepted their renewed invitation (having turned one down in 1766) to become president and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton. Over the course of his presidency, Witherspoon improved the institution, adding books to their library, purchasing scientific equipment, and instituting a number of reforms.

...