Background
Peter Wilson was born on November 23, 1746, in Ordiquhill, Banff, Scotland.
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Peter Wilson was born on November 23, 1746, in Ordiquhill, Banff, Scotland.
He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he devoted himself to the humanistic studies, especially Greek and Latin, for which the Scottish universities have long been famous.
Brown University gave him an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1786 and Union College a Doctor of Law degree in 1798.
In 1763 he emigrated to New York City, and presently gained such repute as a teacher that he was appointed principal of the Hackensack Academy in New Jersey. His success in this post was so marked that in 1783 and again in 1786 the trustees of Queen's (afterwards Rutgers) College at New Brunswick tried (but in vain) to add him to their teaching staff, and, still later, in 1792 had his name under serious consideration for the office of president.
During the Revolution he represented Bergen County in the New Jersey Assembly from 1777 to 1781, and served with such distinction that at the close of the war in 1783 he was selected to revise and codify the laws of the state. In 1787 he was again a prominent member of the legislature.
From 1789 to 1792 he was professor of the Greek and Latin languages in Columbia College, but resigned to accept the position of principal of Erasmus Hall Academy in Flatbush, Long Island.
In 1797 he returned to Columbia as professor of the Greek and Latin languages and of Grecian and Roman antiquities, a chair which he held until his retirement with a pension in 1820.
Although he had ceased to teach at Erasmus Hall, he continued until 1805 to be titular head of the school, and the trustees, who had come to reply upon his scholarship, deferred to his judgment in all matters of educational policy. In July 1800 Dr. William Samuel Johnson resigned the presidency of Columbia, and his successor was not chosen until a year later. In the interim Wilson and John Kemp, professor of mathematics, performed the duties of the office. Wilson survived his retirement five years, dying in New Barbadoes, New Jersey.
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Peter Wilson was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and stood high in its counsels.
His portrait, which hangs in Faculty House, Columbia University, shows a man of noble presence, with fine eyes and patrician features, the face of a scholar and a gentleman.
Peter Wilson was married twice, his second wife being Catherine Duryea, by whom he had five daughters and two sons.