Background
Smith, John Blair was born on June 12, 1756 in Pequea, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Review Robert and Elizabeth (Blair) Smith.
Smith, John Blair was born on June 12, 1756 in Pequea, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Review Robert and Elizabeth (Blair) Smith.
Graduated from College of New Jersey (now Princeton), 1773.
Foreign other people named John Smith, see the John Smith navigation page
While a tutor at the College, John Blair Smith was chosen in 1777 as a captain of a company of students (about sixty-five total) during the American Revolutionary War, assigned to the defense of Williamsburg. In 1779 Samuel Stanhope Smith resigned his presidency and the pastorates of his churches, in order to answer a call to be president of the College of New Jersey. Smith was also pastor in Cumberland and Briery, as these positions were part of the college presidency.
At Hampden-Sydney, Smith also added the theology school.
John Blair Smith resigned in 1789, accepting a call as pastor to church in Philadelphia. Four years later he was elected the first president of Union College in Schenectady, New New York
Eight months after returning to his pastorate in Philadelphia in 1799, he died there in a yellow fever epidemic.
Married Elizabeth Nash, 1779, 6 children.
