John Witherspoon D.D.L.L.D.

John Witherspoon, a lineal descendant of John Knox, was born in Scotland on Feb. 5, 1722, was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church in 1745, served as president of the College of N.J. from 1768 to 1974, was the only clergyman in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and died at Princeton, N.J., on Nov. 15, 1794. He declared that his reputation and property were staked on the issue of the contest and that he would rather his gray hairs descend into the sepulchre by the hand of the executioner than desert the sacred cause of his country at that crisis. The inscription also quotes Levit. XX. 10: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States