Cathcart, William, D.D., was born in the County of Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, Nov. 8, 1826

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11/15/23 2h  · Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Post by Jim Curran

(Note: Thanks so much for your prayers for our family after the sudden home-going of my father in law a couple of weeks ago. Please continue to pray for my mother in law Lisa- I just now have a chance to get back to the daily postings- kind of appropriate that we restart with an entry on the author of the Baptist Encyclopedia himself) Cathcart, William, D.D., was born in the County of Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, Nov. 8, 1826; his parents, James Cathcart and Elizabeth Cously, were of Scotch origin, the stock known as Scotch-Irish in the United States. He was vrought up in the Presbyterian Church, of which, for some years, he was a member. The Sa- viour called him into his kingdom in early life, and taught him that he should preach the gospel. He was baptized by Rev. R. H. Carson, of Tubber- more, in January, 1846. He studied Latin and Greek in a classical school near the residence of his father. He received his literary and theological education in the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and in Horton, now Rawdon College, Yorkshire, England. He was ordained pastor of the Baptist church of Barnsley, near Sheffield, England, early in 1850. From political and anti-state church considerations he determined to come to the United States in 1853, and on the 18th of November in that year he arrived in New York. In the latter part of the following month he became pastor of the Third Baptist church of Groton, in Mystic River, Conn. In April, 1857, he took charge of the Second Baptist church of Philadelphia, Pa., where he has since labored. In 1873, the University of Lewisburg conferred _ on Mr. Cathcart the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1876, on the retirement of Dr. Malcom from the presidency of the American Baptist Historical Society, Dr. Cathcart was elected president, and has been re-elected at each annual meeting since, In 1875, in view of the Centennial year of our national independence, the Baptist Ministerial Union, of Pennsylvania, appointed Dr. Cathcart to prepare a paper, to be read at their meeting in Meadville in 1876, on ‘‘ The Baptists in the Revolution.” This paper, by enlargement, became a duodecimo volume, entitled ‘he Baptists and the American Revolution.” Dr. Cathcart has also published a large octavo, called ‘‘The Papal System,” and ‘The Baptism of the Ages and of the Nations,” From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart