Jacob Green (pastor)

Jacob Green (February 2, 1722 – May 24, 1790) was a Presbyterian pastor and acting president of Princeton University. A resident of Hanover, Green was also the delegate for Morris County to the fourth assembly of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1776 and served as chairman of the constitutional committee.[1][2]

The Reverend
Jacob Green
Acting President of Princeton University
In office
1758–1759
Preceded byJonathan Edwards
Succeeded bySamuel Davies
Delegate for Morris County to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey
In office
June 1776 – August 1776
Personal details
BornFebruary 2, 1722
Malden, Massachusetts
DiedMay 24, 1790(1790-05-24) (aged 68)
Hanover, New Jersey
Resting placeHanover Presbyterian Church Cemetery
Spouse(s)
Anna Strong
​
​
(m. 1747; died 1756)​

Elizabeth Pierson
​
(m. 1757)​
RelationsJacob Green (father)
Dorothy Lynde Green (mother)
Children10, including Ashbel Green
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationPastor, politician, physician

He was the father of Ashbel Green, eighth president of Princeton University.[3]

Early life

Jacob Green was born on February 2, 1722 in Malden, Massachusetts.[4][lower-alpha 1] His father, also named Jacob Green, was a poor farmer who died about 18 months after his birth from a "nervous fever".[5] Due to his father's death, the responsibility of raising Green fell to his mother, Dorothy Lynde Green and an assortment of uncles and sisters.[4] He moved several times through his youth, resulting in him living with various family members.[6] At fourteen, Green went to find vocational work, but after an unsuccessful search for a suitable trade, he began preparing for college on the advice of his brother-in-law;[7] no one in Green's family had attended college before.[8] To gather funds, he got a probate court to approve an arrangement to sell land inherited from his father's estate. To prepare academically, Green spent a year and a half at a grammar school learning Latin, a standard practice at the time for those interested in attending college.[9]

Years at Harvard
Harvard College in 1726, though the college looked the same upon Green's arrival.

Green enrolled at Harvard College in the summer of 1740[7] at the age of 18 and a half.[6] Green recounted his college experience as demanding, though he placed this feeling on his excessive studying.[10] Moreover, he was a studious student who avoided trouble; indeed, he won three scholarships and became Scholar of the House while there.[11] In his junior year, he began a personal diary that he continued for over 40 years.[12] He graduated from Harvard in July 1744 in a class of thirty,[13] and afterwards, he proceeded to teach a school in Sutton, Massachusetts for one year.[14]

While at Harvard, Green was significantly influenced by sermons given by Gilbert Tennet and George Whitefield.[3]

Religion

Throughout the early years of his life, Green was constantly confronted by religion.[15] His household was pious, and his sisters would audibly read religious tracts to him.[16] In Malden, he received much religious education from the local Congregationalist church which instilled strict Congregationalism throughout the town.[15] Though, the biggest religious influence on Green came from the books he read. Malden had a connection to one of the most prominent literary critics in New England, Michael Wigglesworth. As a result, Wiggleworth's best-selling poem The Day of Doom was read frequently in the Green household and had a profound effect on Green's outlook. The poem was also reprinted in the New England Primer, the quintessential textbook at the time for the region, which Green read from.[17]

Ministry
Hanover Presbyterian Church, where Green preached for the majority of his life

In the summer of 1745,[18] Green intended to follow Whitefield to Georgia to take a position at his orphanage, Bethesda Academy.[3] However, upon meeting Whitefield in Elizabethtown, New Jersey at Jonathan Dickinson's home, he was informed by Whitefield that he could not be offered a position due to a paucity of funds.[19]

When his position at Whitefield's orphanage fell through, Green consulted with Presbyterian leaders Jonathan Dickinson and Aaron Burr Sr.[3] As a result of the meeting, he switched from his Congregationalist upbringing to Presbyterianism.[20] Additionally, he decided on becoming a pastor for the Hanover Presbyterian Church located in Morris County, New Jersey.[3] In September 1745, he was licensed to preach and began a year-long trial, which culminated with him being ordained and installed as pastor of Hanover Presbyterian Church in November 1746.[13] He remained as pastor for 44 years.[21]

Academic career

While Green was a devoted minister, he continued his studying, gaining a reputation for his general knowledge and his skill in Hebrew.[14] He was a founding trustee of the College of New Jersey—now Princeton University—in 1748 and served as acting president for a period of eight consecutive months between Jonathan Dickinson's death and the arrival of Samuel Davies.[22] He resigned as trustee in 1764.[23]

In 1774, Green built and established a Latin school, where he taught at with eight others, including his son Ashbel.[24]

Later life and death

Besides his time as pastor, Green was also a physician for over thirty years. In his spare time, he undertook jobs, such as drafting wills, farming, and settling estates.[24]

Green died in May 1790 from influenza he contracted at a religious gathering at his church in Hanover.[1][25] He is buried in Hanover Presbyterian Church Cemetery, along with both his first and second wife; his grave features a lengthy epitaph[26] written by Ashbel Green.[27]

Personal life and family

Green's great-grandfather was Thomas Green, who was one of the first settlers from England.[28] His grandfather, Henry Green, had eight children, with Jacob's father, born in 1689, being the youngest. The Green family was predominantly one of Puritan farmers and craftsmen; Malden served as the geographic center for the family.[4] When Green's father died, his mother remarried to John Barrett, though it is considered that Green and his stepfather did not have a strong relationship due to no mention by Green of him in his autobiography. On the contrary, Green cited his mother Dorothy as influential to his love of learning and interest in religion.[16]

He married his first wife, Anna Strong, in 1747, though she died in November 1756 from tuberculosis; they had four children. He married again in 1757 to Elizabeth Pierseon, who died in 1810, and had six children,[29][lower-alpha 2] with his most notable being Ashbel Green, the eighth president of Princeton University.[31]

Bibliography

Autobiography

Green wrote an autobiography that was published in The Christian Advocate, a religious journal edited by his son Ashbel. While Green wrote most of it, Ashbel filled in parts from his own memory.[27]

  • Green, Ashbel, ed. (1831). "Sketch of the Life of Rev. Jacob Green, A.M." The Christian Advocate. Philadelphia: A. Finley: 408–412, 465–68, 522–525, 578–581, 633–637. ISSN 1079-9311.
  • Green, Ashbel, ed. (1832). "Sketch of the Life of Rev. Jacob Green, A.M." The Christian Advocate. Philadelphia: A. Finley: 11–14, 51–55, 99–102, 145–148, 194–199. ISSN 1079-9311.

Pamphlets

Articles

Articles written by Green were featured in the New Jersey Journal, a revolutionary-era newspaper, under the pen name of "Eumenes."[1]

Published sermons

According to Sprague, Green published three sermons,[27] though the third has not been found.[32]

Notes
  1. Most sources say that Green was born on January 22, 1722; however, they ignore the 11 day shift from the 1752 Calendar Change. Green himself makes reference to this shift in his autobiography on page 409; similarly, Sprague in his work "Annals of the American Pulpit: Presbyterian" lists January 22, 1722 as Old Style. Rohrer, who has produced the most updated work on Green, uses February 2, 1722 as his birthdate.
  2. Elizabeth Pierson was the daughter of John Pierson, who was one of Princeton's founding trustees.[30]

References

Citations
  1. "Guide to the Jacob Green Collection 1779-1782, ca.1900 MG 579". The New Jersey Historical Society. Archived from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  2. Noll 1976, p. 222.
  3. Noll 1980, p. 210.
  4. Rohrer 2014, p. 23.
  5. Rohrer 2014, pp. 8, 23.
  6. Sprague 1858, p. 135.
  7. Noll 1976, p. 218.
  8. Rohrer 2014, p. 28.
  9. Rohrer 2014, p. 28; Noll 1976, p. 218.
  10. Rohrer 2014, p. 31.
  11. Rohrer 2014, p. 33.
  12. Tuttle 1894, p. 6.
  13. Tuttle 1894, p. 7.
  14. Noll 1980, p. 211.
  15. Rohrer 2014, p. 25.
  16. Rohrer 2014, p. 24.
  17. Rohrer 2014, p. 26–27.
  18. Noll 1976, p. 219.
  19. Noll 1976, pp. 3–4.
  20. Noll 1976, p. 220.
  21. Tuttle 1894, p. 8.
  22. Noll 1980, p. 211; Tuttle 1894, p. 10.
  23. Tuttle 1894, p. 9.
  24. Tuttle 1894, pp. 8–9.
  25. Noll 1976, p. 221.
  26. Wheeler, William Ogden; Halsey, Edmund Drake (1894). Inscriptions on the Tomb Stones and Monuments in the Grave Yards at Whippany and Hanover, Morris County, N.J. New Jersey: W.O. Wheeler. pp. 48–49. LCCN 03004893. OCLC 12700525.
  27. Sprague 1858, p. 139.
  28. Tuttle 1894, p. 5.
  29. Sprague 1858, p. 137.
  30. Leitch, Alexander (1978). A Princeton Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-691-04654-9. JSTOR j.ctt13x0zx2.
  31. Noll 1980, p. 210; Noll 1976, p. 220.
  32. A History of Morris County New Jersey: Embracing Upwards of Two Centuries, 1710–1913. New York, Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. 1914. p. 290. OCLC 16946940.

Works cited

Further reading
  • Mitros, David (1993). Jacob Green and the Slavery Debate in Revolutionary Morris County, New Jersey. Morristown: Morris County Heritage Commission. OCLC 28988927.
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