Rev. & Dr. Alexander McWhorter 1734-1807
⌞sp: Mary Cummings 1719-Deceased
Rev. Alexader McWhorter (brother to our direct line John J. McWhorter; both sons of Hugh McWhorter & Jean Jane McWhirter/Gillespie/Fears.
Alexander was a Presbyterian Minister and appointed by congress to visit North Carolina to try and persuade the royalist sympathizers to join the American cause. He met with then General George Washington at Trenton, New Jersey to help devise a plan to protect the North Carolina state. He was present Dec., 26 1778 when the American troops crossed the Delaware River and captured the Hessians as seen in the famous painting below of George Washington Crossing the Delaware.
McWhorter was chaplain to the brigade of General Henry Knox in 1778 and was appointed president of Charlotte Academy in North Carolina, but he left after only a short service due to the draconian measures of Lord Charles Cornwallis and his Redcoat army.
He graduated from Princeton in 1757 then receiving an Honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Yale University in 1776. A committed churchman and Calvinist, he was active in the arranging the Confession of the Faith and Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. He was a trustee of the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church and also a trustee of Princeton College for thirty-five years. He published Sermons on the Blessedness of the Liberal (1796), a Century Sermon describing the progress Newark N.J. (1800), and Sermons; 2 vol. (abt. 1803) He was a profound Hebrew scholar, and, in addition to magazine articles upon metaphysics and theology, was the author of "Yahveh Christ, or the Memorial Name," with an introductory letter by Nathaniel W. Taylor.
Two accounts of the 'council of war' meeting prior to the famous Crossing of the Delaware:
"McWhorter left his home in Newark, to go with Washington and his army, when they were pursued by Cornwallis ; and together with one of his brethren, Rev. Mr. Vanarsdale, of Springfield, followed the retreat of the army to the other side of the Delaware. By invitation of the commander- in chief, he was present and assisted in the council of war which decided the memorable re-crossing of the Delaware. In 1779, by a vote of the Town, Messrs. McWhorter, Chapman and others, were appointed "a Committee to give such instructions to our Legislatures in this Country from time to time as Occasions may require." (pg. 199 History of the Oranges, in Essex County, N.J.)
"He [George Washinton] had ridden over ...on the Brownsburg road to General Greene's quarters, to be present on this Christmas eve at a council of war to which he had called his leading commanders. A few moments after his arrival..., a little group of officers was seen dismounting in the dooryard of the old stone house, and the courtly Stirling, the best-dressed man in the army; the brave and determined New Hampshire General Sullivan, and the foreign adventurer, DeFermoy, were welcomed from the doorstep by General Greene. The, at short intervals, came the experienced soldier, St. Clair, and the equally skilled Stephen; the devoted Virginian, Mercer; Colonel Sargent, of Massachusetts, and the sturdy mariner, Glover. After preparing supper for General Greene and his compatriots, the Merrick family left the house to the exclusive use of the council. The meal had just been announced when Colonel Stark, tall and straight as an Indian, and Colonel Knox, the artillerist, were admitted. The Reverend Doctor Alexander McWhorter, of Newark, pronounced grace at the supper of this important gathering of American military heroes." (pg. 4; The Continental Army at the Crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Night of 1776)
There are multiple accounts of a painting by John Singleton Copley of Alexander that hangs in the gallery of Yale University but I'm unable to actually find an image of it. The painting above was by artist James Sharples; a gift by George C. McWhorter.
Dr. Rev. Alexander McWhorter
Grave-site buried in Newark, Essex, New Jersey
Letter written from General George Washington to Dr. Rev. Alexander McWhorter
Details of the letter can be found at the Founders National Archives website.
Sources:
- Our Most Priceless Heritage: The Lasting Legacy of the Scots-Irish in America by Billy Kennedy
- The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans edited by Rossiter Johnson, John Howward Irown
- History of the Oranges, in Essex County, N.J. by Stephen Wickes
- The Continental Army at the Crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Night of 1776 by William Scudder Stryker
- Appletons' Encyclopedia of American Biography General Editors: James Grant Wilson and John Fiske D. Appleton & Co., New York City, NY, Six Volumes, 1887
- Annals from The American Pulpit, Presbyterian 1859 By William Buell Sprague
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