John McClintock was born on October 27, 1814, and was the son of John and Martha (M'Mackin) McClintock, both of whom were born in County Tyrone, Ireland. The younger John was a native of Philadelphia, where his father carried on a retail dry-goods business.
John received his early schooling under Samuel B. Wylie, also an Irishman, and a noted classicist. When he was fourteen years old he became a clerk in his father's store, and two years later, bookkeeper in the Methodist Book Concern, New York. While here, he was converted, and began to consider entering the ministry. In 1832, he enrolled as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania and completed the required course in three years.
In April 1835, John was admitted on trial to the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and appointed to Jersey City. His health broke down in 1836, and he was obliged to relinquish his charge. Turning now to the educational field, he accepted an assistant professorship of mathematics at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in 1837 was made full professor. He remained with this institution for twelve years, being transferred to the chair of classical languages in 1840.
With Charles E. Blumenthal he prepared a translation of Neander's Das Leben Jesu Christi, issued in 1848 under the title, The Life of Jesus Christ in Its Historical Connexion and Development. Improvement in his health enabled him to preach more frequently, and on April 19, 1840, he was ordained elder by Bishop Elijah Hedding.
When in 1847, two slave-owners from Maryland came to Carlisle to recover some runaway slaves, McClintock endeavored to see that the legal rights of the latter were respected. Before the matter was settled, a riot occurred and he and a number of African Americans were arrested on the charge of instigating it. Excitement ran high and the feeling against him was strong, but a jury acquitted him. In 1848, he resigned his professorship and became editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review, to which office the General Conference of that year elected him. For this position, he was now well fitted. During the eight years he conducted the Review he made it a scholarly exponent of the best Christian thought, and under him it became, for the first time, self-supporting. Twice in this period he went abroad for the benefit of his health.
In 1851, he was elected president of Wesleyan University, and in 1855, president of Troy University, both of which honors he declined. He published in 1855 The Temporal Power of the Pope, an exposition of the Ultramontane theory of the relation of church and state. Two years before, with Dr. James Strong, he had begun the now well-known Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, upon which ambitious undertaking he spent much time for the rest of his life. Three volumes only were published before his death, the first in 1867.
His connection with the Review terminated in 1856 and with Bishop Matthew Simpson he went abroad as a delegate to the British Wesleyan Conference, and the conference of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin. Upon his return he became pastor of St. Paul's Church, New York, where he soon ranked among the ablest preachers of the city. In 1860, he was appointed pastor of the American Chapel, Paris.
It is reported that President Lincoln declared him fitted for the position of minister to France. He again became pastor of St. Paul's Church, New York, in 1864, but ill health soon compelled him to resign. From 1864 to 1866, as chairman of a committee appointed by the General Conference, he was busily engaged in putting into operation an elaborate scheme for the celebration of the centenary of American Methodism.
In accordance with the desire of Daniel Drew, in 1867, he became the first president of Drew Theological Seminary, but less than three years later death brought his career to a close.
McClintock was a pastor of St. Paul's Church in New York and a pastor of the American Chapel in Paris. In 1867 he became the first president of Drew Theological Seminary. During the Civil War, by speeches, writings, and personal contacts, he was a potent influence in removing misapprehensions abroad, and through the Methodist, of which he was a corresponding editor, in disseminating correct information at home.
(Excerpt from Lectures by the Late John M'clintock, D. D.,...)
John suffered from a throat trouble and was never physically strong. Having an acquisitive mind and a studious disposition, he had become "the most universally accomplished man American Methodism had produced".
McClintock was married first, in 1837, to Caroline A. Wakeman; Emory McClintock was their son. In October 1851, he married Catharine W. Emory, widow of his friend, Reverend Robert Emory.
31 January 1789 - 4 July 1840
11 June 1819 - 23 October 1889
8 April 1809 - 18 October 1881
24 December 1822 - 18 July 1900
1811 - 29 November 1884
1814 - 2 March 1850
30 June 1819 - 20 January 1891
1838 - 7 April 1839
20 April 1843 - 14 January 1928
1845 - 16 November 1846
19 September 1840 - 10 July 1916
