Background
He was born in the far north of England, by the River Tweed.
He was born in the far north of England, by the River Tweed.
He sailed to the United States in June 1783, studied for four years, and was ordained in Philadelphia 31 October 1788.
He was no more than five feet tall, with black, piercing eyes and tangled hair, and gained a reputation for absent mindedness through his practice of reading a book while riding to church, not noticing when the horse wandered off the route. He wrote the book Alexander and Rufus: Dialogues on Church Communion.