Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/112

 FINLEY

KINOTTI

jM-incipal of an academy at Nottingham, Md., at the same time being pastoi' of the church in that place. In 1701 he resigned to accept the presi- ilency of the College of New Jersey to succeed Samuel Davies, deceased, and was its president up to the time of his death. He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, 1751-66. The Univer- sity of Glasgow made him an S.T.D. in 1763. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 17, 1766.

FINLEY, Samuel, soldier, was born in West- moreland county, Pa., April 15, 1753; son of John and Martha (Berkley) Finley,; and nephew of President Samuel Finley of Princeton. In 1775 he joined the Revolutionary army and rose by promotion to the rank of major. In 1778 he was talcen prisoner at Fort Washington, N.Y., and was not released for three years. After his ex- change, he served under Morgan at the battle of Cowpens where he commanded the artillery. Before the war was over he was a major of cav- alry of the Virginia line. In return fi>r his ser- vices he was awarded a large grant of land near Chillicothe, Ohio, and removed to that place in 1796, becoming one of the founders of the town. He was appointed by President Washington re- ceiver of public moneys in the northwestern ter- ritory. In the war of 1812 he raised a regiment and served as a general of militia. He died in Philadcl])liia, Pa.. April i, 1829.

FINNEY, Charles Qrandison, preacher and educator, was born in Warren, Conn., Aug. 29, 1792; son of Sylvester and Rebekka (Rice) Fin- ney. About 1794 his parents removed to Oneida county, N.Y., and in 1818 to Hender.son, Jeffer- son county, N.Y. He attended an academy at Warren, Conn., in 1812, taught in New Jersey, and was ad- mitteil to the New York bar. In 1820 he purchased a Bible as a reference book in law, and through the reading of this and t'le preaching of the t i lie, he gave up his Liu- business in 1821. A year later he was ^ ,^, taken in charge by
 * v. Dr. George W.

\/. /r/:#i!>*z-=-^ the St. Lawrence ^^^ presbytery of New

Y'ork, and placed under private teachers for theological instruction. Early in 1824 he was licensed to preach and in July was ordained by the same presbytery and entered u]»n a success- ful career as an evangelist. He held protracted meetings at Evans Jlills, Rome, ITtica, Auburn, Troy and New Lebanon, N.Y'., Wilmington, Del.,

and Philadelphia, Pa., till 1829. He preached in New York city and in Rochester, N.Y., in 1830. In the latter place, as an outcome of his meet- ings, twelve hundred persons united with the churches of the Rochester presbytery and forty of his converts subsequently entered the minis- try. This same year he was invited to preach at Union college, Schenectady, N.Y., by President Nott, and later at Boston, Mass., by the Congre- gational churches. He preached in the old National theatre, New York city, 1832-34. In 1834 the Broadway tabernacle was built for him, but the following year he resigned his pastorate and became professor of theology at Oberlin col- lege, Ohio. He held this position till his death, and in its early years his personal friends con- tributed largely to its support. He was presi- dent of Oberlin college, 1851-66; pastor of the Congregational church there, 1837-73; preached in Boston, Mass., 1843-43 and 1856-57; in London, Eng., 1849-50; and in England and Scothuul, 1858-60. He assisted in establishing and tnliting the Oberlin Evangelist and the Oberlin Qiuirti r!ij, and published: Lectures on lievivals (1835, 1840 and 1868); Lectures to Professing Christians (1836); Ser- mons on Important Subjects (1839); Lectures on Systematic Theology (3 vols., 1847-51); and wrote his ilemoirs published in 1876. He died in Ober- lin. Oliio, Au.g. 16, 1875.

FINOTTI, Joseph M., author, was born in Ferrara, Italy, in 1817. He was of a distin- guished family, and acquired a high position as a scholar, pursuing his studies in the universities of Rome. He joined the Society of Jesus, in 1842 was ordained a priest, and in 1845 was sent to America as a missionary of the order. He was received by Archbishop Eccleston, stationed .at St. Mary's church, Alexandria, Va., and given extensive missions in Virginia and Maryland. Failing health compelled him to ask for dispensa- tion of his vows, and he became a secular priest in 1852 and joined the household of Bishop Wil- liams, Boston, Mass., serving for a time as editor of the Pilot and as a contributor to Catholic periodicals. He served the Mission church in Brooklineand other outlying missions and estab- lished the Holyrood cemetery. He then left Boston for a milder climate, serving for a time as professor in Mt. St. Mary's seminary of the west, Cincinnati. Ohio, afterward as president of Creighton college, Omaha. He later served in the Cathedral at Denver as assistant to Bishop Machebeuf, and in 1877 took charge of the Church of the Assumption, Central City, Col. He pub- lished in 1871 the first volume of his Ilihlio- graphica Catholica Americana anil left the work uncomplete<l at his death. He published Month of Mary (1853'); Life of Blessed Paul nf the Cross (1860); Italy m the Fifteenth Century (1861); Diary