Archibald Alexander was born at South River, Rockbridge County, Virginia, on April 17, 1772, son of William Alexander, a farmer of means.[5] He was raised under the tuition and ministry of Presbyterian minister William Graham (1745–1799), a man who had been trained in theology by John Witherspoon.
His grandfather, of Scottish descent, came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1736, and after a residence of two years removed to Virginia. William, father of Archibald, was a farmer and trader. His nephew was the American novelist William Alexander Caruthers (1802–1846).[6]
At the age of ten Archibald was sent to the academy of William Graham at Timber Ridge meetinghouse (since developed into Washington and Lee University), at Lexington.[5] At the age of seventeen he became a tutor in the family of General Thomas Posey,[7] of The Wilderness, twelve miles west of Fredericksburg, but after a few months resumed his studies with his former teacher. At this time a remarkable movement, still spoken of as "the great revival," influenced his mind and he turned his attention to the study of divinity.
Career
On October 1, 1791, he was licensed to preach, ordained by the presbytery of Hanover on June 9, 1794, and for seven years was an itinerant pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward counties.
By the time he was 21, Alexander was a preacher of the Presbyterian Church. He was appointed the president of Hampden–Sydney College,[8] where he served from 1797 until a revolt among the students forced him to retire in 1806, and from 1807 to 1812 he was acted as pastor of the Old Pine street Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.[5]
The Princeton Theological Seminary was established at Princeton, New Jersey in 1812 and Alexander was appointed its first professor,[5] inaugurated on August 12, 1812. In 1824, he helped to found the Chi Phi Society along with Robert Baird and Charles Hodge. In 1843, he returned to Washington College to deliver an alumni address, which was one of his many publications.
Alexander was one of the earliest supporters of the American Colonization Society that arranged the emigration of free Black and enslaved Black Americans to Liberia. In 1827, he and his close friend Samuel Miller defended the organization's mission against attacks by John Brown Russwurm in Russwurm's paper, Freedom's Journal. He later served as the Colonization Society's vice president and wrote the most comprehensive history of the movement written before the twentieth century, A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa (1846).[9]
Samuel Miller became the second professor at the seminary and for 37 years Alexander and Miller were considered together as pillars of the Presbyterian Church in maintaining its doctrines. Charles Hodge, a famous student and successor of Alexander, named his son Archibald Alexander Hodge after his mentor.
On April 5, 1802, Alexander married Janetta Waddel, the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher, James Waddel (1739–1805), whose eloquence was described in William Wirt's Letters of a British Spy (1803).[11] Together, they were the parents of:
James Waddel Alexander (1804–1859), who was a Princeton graduate and Presbyterian minister. He wrote the life of his father, and edited his posthumous works.
Biographical sketches of the founder, and principal alumni of the Log college : together with an account of the revivals of religion, under their ministry
Outlines of moral science
Love to an unseen saviour
A history of the Israelitish nation, from their origin to their dispersion at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
An address to candidates for the ministry : on the importance of aiming at eminent piety in making their preparation for the sacred office
Suggestions in vindication of Sunday-schools, but more especially for the improvement of Sunday-school books, and the enlargement of the plan of instruction
The evidences of Christianity
Thoughts on the education of pious and indigent candidates for the ministry
Thoughts on religious experience
Thoughts on religious experience' To which is added an appendix, containing "Letters to the aged," &c., &c
A discourse occasioned by the burning of the theatre in the city of Richmond, Virginia, on the twenty-sixth of December, 1811. By which lawful calamity a large number of lives were lost. Delivered in the Third Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, on the eighth day of January, 1812, at the request of the Virginia students attached to the medical class in the University of Pennsylvania
The canon of the Old and New Testaments ascertained
The canon of the Old and New Testaments ascertained; or, The Bible, complete, without the Apocrypha and unwritten traditions (Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1851 by A.W. Mitchell in the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.)
Evidences of the authenticity, inspiration and canonical authority of the Holy Scriptures
Practical sermons to be read in families and social meetings
Practical truths
A brief compend of Bible truth
A brief outline of the evidences of the Christian religion
Remarks on a paragraph in the Rev. Doctor Davidson's History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky : in reference to the character of the late Mr. John Lyle, ruling elder in the Timberridge Church, Virginia
The way of salvation familiarly explained : in a conversation between a father and his children
A pocket dictionary of the Holy Bible. Containing, a historical and geographical account of the persons and places mentioned in the Old and New Testaments: and also a description of other objects, natural, artificial, civil, religious, and military; together with a copious reference to texts of Scripture under each important word
Benedetto, Robert (2010). Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches (2nd ed.). Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 6–7. ISBN978-0-8108-7023-9.
Carey, Patrick W.; Lienhard, Joseph T. (2000). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Theologians. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN978-0-313-03344-5.
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