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Rev. Robert Cathcart, D. D.
Historical Biography
Rev. Robert Cathcart, D. D., deceased, was the son of Alexander Cathcart and Mary Walker,
his wife. He was born in November 1759, near the town of Coleraine, Ireland, where his
early education was conducted. He afterward became a student at the University of Glasgow,
where he graduated, and having selected the ministry as his profession, studied divinity
at that institution. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Route, and labored
within its bonds for several years. Having an uncle in America , the Rev. Robert Cathcart
of Wilmington, Del., he came to the United States in 1790, and joined the Presbytery of
Philadelphia, filling various vacant pulpits in that vicinity. During this period he
declined a call to Cape May, on account of its supposed unhealthful ness. In October 1793,
he was installed pastor of the Presbyterian churches at York, Penn., and Round Hill, in
Hopewell Township in York County, by the Presbytery of Carlisle. Of the latter church he
was pastor f!
or forty-two years, and of the former for forty-four years, preaching in each on
alternate Sundays, while pastor of both. During these forty-two years, though the Hopewell
church was distant from his home in York fifteen miles, he never failed when at home, to
reach his pulpit, excepting on one Sabbath when ill. For thirty successive years he was
yearly elected by the Presbytery to which he belonged its commissioner to the general
assembly of that denomination, and for twenty years was stated clerk of that body. The
degree of doctor of divinity was conferred on him by Queen’s, now Rutger’s College, New
Brunswick, N.J. He was for thirty years a trustee of Dickinson College, Carlisle, and
obtained from it the degree of doctor of divinity for Scott, the great Scriptural
commentator. Always identified with and an active promoter of public education, he was one
of the original trustees of the York County Academy, and president of the board for many
years. Some ye!
ars before his death he tendered his resignation as president, but the
board declined to accept it. He was a liberal contributor to all the missionary and
charitable enterprises of his own church, as well as to those not strictly denominational,
such as the Bible and Tract Societies, and the American Sunday-school Union. It has been
justly said of him that he taught his people liberality by example, rather than by
precept. One of his successors wrote of him: “I knew Dr. Cathcart as well as a son could
know a father, visited him daily for years, and, with the best opportunities for judging,
can say that he was among the best and purest of our American clergy.” Another summing up
his character, says: “He was remarkable for his honesty, liberality, gentlemanliness,
philanthropy and form of government.” In 1776 he married Susan Latimer of Newport, Del. He
survived her thirty-nine years, and died on October 19, 1849, leaving three sons and two
daughters, of whom only one daughter is now living. Dr. Cathcart was a ma!
n of great learning, of board and liberal culture, and catholic views on all religious
questions. Though ardently attached to the Presbyterian Church, in which he was born and
to which he devoted his life, there was nothing narrow or sectarian about him. He was an
orator in the ordinary sense of the term. His delivery was somewhat monotonous, and with
little gesture and no attempt at rhetorical display; but the purity and elegance of his
diction, the depth and breadth of thought, the originality displayed in his sermons,
always attracted a large and attentive audience of the most cultivated and intellectual
people in the town. His high personal and professional standing in the community, his long
connection with the highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church in the United States,
and the influence he there exercised in molding and guiding the policy of the church, make
it eminently fitting that he should be selected as the representative of Presbyterianism
in his work. I!
n the great schism, which rent the Presbyterian Church in twain about
1837, Dr. Cathcart was an earnest advocate of the liberal or “new school” side. The trial
of Rev. Albert Barnes for heresy by the synod of Pennsylvania, took place in the York
Church. One of the few lawsuits concerning church property growing out of that schism was
instituted by the “old school” minority of the York congregation to recover the church and
parsonage property. It was tried in 1841 before Judge Hayes of Lancaster, Messrs. Mayer
and Chapin being of counsel for the “new school” party, and Messrs. Hambly & Mason for
the “old school,” and the former gained the suit both in the court below, and the Supreme
Court. The cause is reported in 1 Watts’ and Serjeants’ Reports.
Taken from the book, “History of York County, Illustrated 1886” by John Gibson, Historical
Editor