Call Number:

C1128

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Citations should be as follows: James Clement Moffat Collection, Box #, Folder #, Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1832-1861 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Moffat, James C. (James Clement), 1811-1890, former owner

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century, Manuscripts--19th century, and Poems--19th century

Abstract:

Consists of selected manuscripts and corresondence of the nineteenth-century Scottish-born church historian and educator James Clement Moffat.

Church historian James Clement Moffat, son of David Douglas Moffat and Margaret Clement, was born in Glencree, Scotland, on May 30, 1811. He studied Latin, Greek, French, German, and Hebrew while he worked at a printing shop. He came to the United States in 1832 with the intention of following his trade as a printer, but a chance meeting with Professor (afterward President) John Maclean of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) led to his entering the junior class of that college, where he graduated in 1835. He studied and tutored at Yale and also at Princeton, and in 1839 he went to Lafayette College as professor of Latin and Greek. The Presbytery of Oxford, Ohio, licensed him to preach in 1851, and later ordained him, without his having taken a theological course. In 1852 he returned to the College of New Jersey as professor of Latin, history, and then of Greek. He became professor of church history in Princeton Theological Seminary in 1861, a position he held for seventeen years. Moffat published a long poem Alwyn: A Romance of Study (1875), which is known to be autobiographical.

The collection consists of selected manuscripts and correspondence of Moffat, the bulk of which are letters to his father, his mother, his brother John, and his sister Margaret. In letters to his brother he describes his life and classes at Princeton University, and later talks about the political situation and the legislature in the cities where he is living. In the letters to his father he talks about life at Princeton, his different appointments, the teaching offer made by Pres. John MacLean at the College of New Jersey, and his work at Lafayette College. Included are two letters from J. K. Douglas in Camden, S.C.: one (1832) is to Capt. Norman Peck of the ship Frances regarding David Moffat and his family migrating to America, and the second (1833) is to David Moffat letting him know that his son James sent him a letter indicating that he intends to embark on a ship headed for Charleston, S.C., and that Peck instructed his friends to take care of him. Other correspondents include William Henry Green, Alexander T. McGill, G. Wilson McPhail, who are recalling him to the chair of church history in the Princeton Theological Seminary after he resigned. Also included is a memorandum or journal of dates and events in Moffat's life (1833-1888), notes on the "Cannon" (1880s), "My Christmas Card," a manuscript poem to Henry C. Matthews (1880), and an undated poem titled "Lines on the Death of Miss Caroline Haile." There are typed transcription of many of the letters.

Folders are arranged in alphabetical order by correspondent and then chronologically.