Alexander, ARCHIBALD

Alexander, ARCHIBALD, an American divine of Scottish descent, was born in Virginia, 17th April 1772, and died at Princeton, New Jersey, 22d October 1851. He studied theology, and performed itinerant missionary work in various parts of Virginia; became president of Hampden Sidney College in 1796, and pastor of a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia in 1807. On the establishment of Princeton College, he was appointed its first theological professor in 1812, which position he held till his death. Amongst other works, he published Outlines of the Evidences of Christianity; Treatise on the Canon of the Scriptures (1826); History of the Patriarchs (1833); and History of the Israelitic Nation (1852); his Moral Science was posthumous.—His eldest son, JAMES WADDELL ALEXANDER (1804–59), was a Presbyterian minister in Virginia, New Jersey, and at New York; and afterwards professor in Princeton Theological Seminary. He contributed to the Princeton Review, wrote over thirty children's books, a life of his father, and miscellaneous works. See his Life by Dr Hall (1860).—JOSEPH ADDISON ALEXANDER, third son (1809–60), graduated at Princeton in 1826, lectured there on Biblical Criticism and Ecclesiastical History, and for the last eight years of his life filled the chair of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History. He was engaged at the time of his death, along with Dr Hodge, on a commentary of the New Testament. He is best known by his commentaries and Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–7; revised edition, 1864), and the Psalms Translated and Explained (3 vols. 1850), both of which have had a large circulation, and have been reprinted in England.