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A Note on the Religious Affiliations of Some American Founders.


Daniel of St. Thomas Jennifer - Episcopalianism can be inferred from his prominence in the Propietary Government before the Revolution, when he served as Lord Baltimore's fiscal agent.

William Blount - was brought up an Episcopalian, but died a Presbyterian; however, he probably did not make the change before 1790, when he moved to Transappalachian country, where the Episcopal church was slow to penetrate.

Richard Dobbs Spaight - His funeral oration was delivered by "his rector and long life friend," the Rev. Thomas Pitt Irving of New Bern, accordind to John H Wheeler's "Sketch of the Life of R.D. Spaight" (Baltimore, W. K. Boyle, 1880, p. 21).

Jonathon Dayton - originally a Presbyterian, eventually became an Episcopalian, but Edwin F. Hatfield's "History of Elizabeth, N.J. (N.Y., Carleton and Lanahan, 1868) contains some evidence that he was still active as a Presbyterian layman as late as 1789.

James Wilson - was born in Scotland, and originally destined for Kirk. After coming to Pennsylvania most of his associations were Episcopalian, but his lates biographer, Charles Page Smith, says that he never abandoned the forms and doctrines of his parent's church.

Hugh Williamson - began his career as a Presbyterian clergyman. He soon abandoned the ministry, but nothing indicates he left the church.

Abraham Baldwin - A native of Connecticut, is usually taken to be a Congregationalist. But there were as yet no Congregationalist churches outside of New England, and emigrating Congregationalists usually joined the Presbyterian churches.

George Clymer - Was buried in a Quaker churchyard, and other Philadelphia Clymers are known to be Quakers.

Gouverneur Morris - Associated himself with no church group during his lifetime. He is buried in an Episcopal churchyard because his devout son, the second Gouverneur, gave both land and building for St. Anne's, The Bronx, New York.


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