Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Samuel Hanson COX
REV. SAMUEL HANSON5 COX, D. D., LL.D.,--b. at Rahway, N. J., Aug. 25, 1793; d. at Bronxville, N. Y., Oct. 2, 1880; removed to Philadelphia in 1801; educated at Weston, Pa.; studied law at Newark, 1811; served in a volunteer regiment of riflemen in the war of 1812; was baptized in March, 1813; studied theology; was ordained and installed pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Mendham, N. J., July 1, 1817, and of the Spring Street Church, New York, December 25, 1820; one of the founders of the New York University; went to Europe for his health in 1833 and took a prominent position in English religious and social circles; became Professor of Pastoral Theology at Auburn Seminary in 1834 and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, in 1837; Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 1846; retired, April, 1854, to Owego, N. Y., but preached frequently in New York and elsewhere; lived for twelve years at Bronxville, N. Y., where he died; funeral at the Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn which was originally built for him.
During the active years of his ministry, he stood in the front rank of the American clergy. His pronounced anti-slavery sentiments caused him to be mobbed, and his house and the church in Spring Street, New York, which he was serving at the time, were sacked by the lawless elements. His opposition to slavery may have been in part, an inheritance from his Quaker ancestry, but with the theological views of the disciples of George Fox, he, apparently, had little sympathy, if we may judge from a somewhat famous volume which he afterwards published, entitled: "Quakerism not Christianity." He was the author also of "Interviews, Memorable and Useful," and of many occasional discourses of more or less public interest. His scholarly attainments were recognized by his election to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric, at Auburn, and, later, to that of Ecclesiastical History, in Union Theological Seminary, New York.
He had a wide reputation also as a preacher and a platform orator, and was not less famous for his ready wit than for his gift of elouqence. Whether or not, he was seriously disturbed by the fact that several of his children, became identified with the Episcopal Church, the circumstance gave occasion for more than one illustration of his aptness at repartee. To a casual inquiry as to the number of his children, he replied that he had ten, five of whom were wise and five were Episcopalians. When one of the latter was ordained to the priesthood, a friend remarked to Dr. Cox that he had not seen him at the "laying on of hands," to whom he made answer: "No, but if I had laid hands on that young man somewhat earlier there would have been no occasion for the ceremony to-day."
Such stories, and they are innumerable and apparently well authenticated, are fair samples of the quality of his humor and will account for the exceptional power that he had with an audience, when wit and wisdom were conjoined to point an argument or give emphasis to his public utterances.
Dr. Cox was twice m., first at Boston, April 7, 1817, to Abia, daughter of Aaron Cleveland and Elizabeth Clement Breed, and second, late in life, to Anna Fosdick, daughter of George Bacon and Nancy Skinner, at Hartford, Nov. 16, 1869.
Children: (all of the first marriage) i. Arthur Cleveland, ii. Samuel Hanson, iii. James Richards, iv. Elizabeth Rowe, v. William Cowper, vi. Elizabeth Russell, vii. Alfred Roe, viii. Edward Dore Griffin, ix. Abia Caroline, x. Mary Liddon, xi. Frances Abia, xii. Susan Roe, xiii. Henrietta Wolfe, xiv. Anne Morrison, xv. Mary Lundie.
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