Robert Finley (1772-1817)

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This white person has 9 related events in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.

This person is related to Princeton University history. See our Princeton University research guide for more information about finding Princeton affiliates and campus locations in the New Jersey Slavery Records database.
Identifier
NJS-PER-01508
Given Name
Robert
Family Name
Finley
Birth Date
1772
Death Date
November 3, 1817
Sex
Male
Occupation
Religious
Teaching
Biographical Description
Rev. Robert Finley was a Presbyterian clergyman and the chief founder of the American Colonization Society. He was the son of James Finley (c. 1737-1808), who had immigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, to Princeton, New Jersey, and the urging of his friend the Rev. John Witherspoon (president of Princeton University, then called the College of New Jersey). Robert Finley was born in Princeton in 1772. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1787 at the age of 15. He maintained a close relationship with his alma mater, teaching as a tutor there in the early 1790s; he was elected to the board of trustees of the college in 1806. He was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, from 1795 to 1817. Several documents at the Somerset County Clerk's Office indicate that Finley enslaved people while he lived in Baskin Ridge in Bernards Township.

Finley became an ardent advocate of the idea that freed African Americans should migrate to Africa for colonization and, in 1816, established the American Colonization Society. In 1817, shortly before his death, he became the president of the University of Georgia and moved from Basking Ridge to Athens, Georgia, to take that position.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Princeton University history
clergy
Places
Basking Ridge, Bernards
Bernards (formerly Bernardston)
Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge, Bernards
Princeton
Organization
American Colonization Society
Princeton University
Relationship to Princeton
Alumnus
Instructor
Trustee
Enslaver of
Anthony (b. 1813)
Cuffe (b. 1805)
Cyrus (b. 1808)
Phillis
Sarah (b. 1812)
Sarah Green
William Field
Child of
James Finley (1737-1808)
References

Hollander, Craig. Princeton and the Colonization Movement. Princeton & Slavery website. https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories/princeton-and-the-colonization-movement.

Brown, Isaac V. Memoirs of the Rev. Robert Finley, D. D. New Brunswick, NJ: Terhune & Letson, 1819. http://archive.org/details/memoirsofrevrobe00brow.

This person is represented on the following page(s):
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Finley
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Sources

Author:

  • Letter from Robert Finley to John Neilson regarding Jef (Letter from Robert Finley to John Neilson regarding Jef, February 27, 1794. Archival location: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries. Neilson Family Papers, 1768-1908 (MC 933). Box 4, Folder 45: J & J Neilson - Papers relating to purchase of slaves.)

Recipient of Letter:

  • Letter from John Neilson to Robert Finley regarding Jef (Letter from John Neilson to Robert Finley regarding Jef, February 25, 1794. Archival location: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries. Neilson Family Papers, 1768-1908 (MC 933). Box 4, Folder 45: J & J Neilson - Papers relating to purchase of slaves.)
Linked Events

Additional Participant in:
Resource class
Agent