William Rafferty was born in Ireland in 1778 and graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1800. He immigrated to the United States with his parents, John and Eleanor, and siblings, Mary, Stewart, and John, Jr., in the early 19th century. He began his ministerial career as a Presbyterian and later became an Episcopalian. Rafferty led the Blooming Grove Congregational Church in Orange County, New York (1812-1815), and later became president of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland (1824-1831). In 1824, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Union College in Schenectady, New York. Rafferty's children included John Chandler Rafferty (1816-1880), a Yale graduate and lawyer. William Rafferty died on August 18, 1830.
From the guide to the William Rafferty papers, Rafferty, William papers, 1801-1896, 1814-1827, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
