Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. Today I want to tell you about the man who may have been the
most influential Scotsman ever. He was born here in Gifford just outside Haddington, and he died
just outside Princeton, New Jersey. His name was John Witherspoon. Now the thing is that most Scots
will never have heard of John Witherspoon, and most Americans will have never heard of Haddington.
Now I'm not saying who got the better end of that deal, but if you're interested in the people,
places and events in Scottish history, then hit the subscribe button at the bottom right at any time
during this video, and ring the notification bell to find out when I publish new videos.
In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Now I've brought you to the grave of James Alexander Witherspoon. James was the Minister
of Yester Kirk here in the village of Gifford, and his eldest son John was born on the 5th of
February 1723. After studying at Edinburgh, John too would go on to be a Minister. Now I'm understating
that a bit at Edinburgh University he did an MA, then continued on to study Divinity. He was awarded
an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity from St Andrews no less. He wrote three books on Theology. He was a
bit of a smarty pants if the truth be told. Now, just as Bonnie Prince Charlie was landed in the
West Highlands, John was taking on his first role as a Presbyterian Minister in Ayrshire.
Now I don't know if you know this, but Presbyterian Ministers didn't generally tend to support
the Jacobite cause, and for John that came to a head in January 1746 at the Battle of Falkirk.
John, along with some others, were captured at the Battle of Falkirk,
and they were imprisoned here at Doune Castle. Now he was a Presbyterian Minister, not a soldier,
but in those days people would go to battles and pack sandwiches for a day out.
It would be nearly 200 years before a Scotsman would invent the telly!
Anyway, in all the excitement he got caught and he was imprisoned here.
Along with some others, he did the sheets tied as a rope thing, he climbed out the
window round the back, escaped and went back to Ayrshire to spend the next 12 years,
marrying, having children, being a kirk Minister and a brainy Theologian, then he received a calling
to Paisley. I studied in this town in the 80s, I've performed stand-up here in Paisley
Arts Centre, but in 1758 this was Paisley Laigh Kirk and the Minister was John Witherspoon.
Now as I said, John was a brainy sort and he was beginning to gain a reputation.
This was the time of the Enlightenment. Scotland was a hotbed of philosophical, moral, scientific and
rational thinking. As well as the economics of Adam Smith, and the philosophy of David
Hume, you'd the development of the Philosophical Realism of the Scottish School of Common Sense.
Now the Scottish School of Common Sense was a reaction to Descartes Theory of Ideas,
but nowadays Scottish common sense philosophy is something that we instinctively understand.
Ye cannae shove your granny aff a bus, Ye cannae throw pieces oot a 20-story flat, these things
we hold the self-evident, but somebody had to take these ideas to the Americas. Come with me.
This is Witherspoon Street. John Witherspoon was approached by the College of New Jersey in
Princeton, which went on to become the celebrated Princeton University, but at this stage it was a
struggling Presbyterian college looking for somebody who would bridge the gap between
Auld Licht and New Licht thinking that was causing such a debate at the time here in Scotland.
When the request came from the college in New Jersey, Witherspoon's wife didn't want to go to
the Americas and she made it very clear to him, that it was God's will that he should stay in Paisley.
Now having heard that still small voice of God from the kitchen, Witherspoon rejected the proposal.
Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, both later signatories to the American
Declaration of Independence, urged him to reconsider. Now an incident happened
in a pub here in Paisley and I'll tell you the story as we walk through the university.
Some young scallywags of the parish held a mock last supper in the pub. Now this idea was shocking
when Billy Connolly did a routine about it in 1972, can you imagine the response of John Witherspoon
in the 1760s? He wrote a diatribe of denunciation and named the culprits. They sued him for libel and won.
Witherspoon appealed, the court upheld the decision and on top of the compensation, Witherspoon had to
pay the men's costs. That's when he decided it was God's will for him to go to America after all.
So this is the front of West of Scotland University. It's where I studied back in the 80s.
Whose statue do you think is at the main door but John Witherspoon. Almost 40 years later
this place feels completely different. When John Witherspoon arrived in Princeton he transformed
that college. It's fair to say that Princeton University wouldn't be what it is the day without
John Witherspoon. It became more than a college for Presbyterian ministers, it became the greenhouse
for germinating the leaders of the nation that would become America. So many of the ideas from
Locke through the enlightenment of liberty and freedom, were engendered at that college. One
pro-crown commentator called it a seminary of sedition. From among his students came 37 Judges,
3 Justices of the US Supreme Court, 10 Cabinet Officers, 12 Members of the Continental Congress,
28 US Senators, over 50 United States Congressmen, and a President. When the American Revolution came,
Witherspoon was a key supporter. That's right, he was deeply involved in that sordid rebellion.
He sat on the Committee of Correspondence, signed the Virginia Resolution for Independence. He helped
draft the Articles of Confederation, was Chaplain to the Continental Congress, and his son James
was killed fighting the British at the Battle of Germantown. When somebody had said that the 13 colonies
were not yet ready for independence, he's said to have replied that they were not only ripe for
the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it. That's right, 30 years after he'd opposed the
Jacobites at Falkirk in 1746, John Witherspoon was up to his neck in seditious rebellion.
In July 1776, he was one of the signatories to America's Declaration of Independence.
In November 1777 he had to evacuate the college, as troops from both sides of the Revolutionary War
approached, for what became the Battle of Princeton. Key to that battle was another
Scotsman who'd fought for the Jacobites at the Battle of Falkirk and I tell his story in my
video, 'The American Jacobite' I'll leave a link at the end. You should definitely watch that video.
At the start I said that this may have been the most influential Scotsman ever.
When you consider the world as it stands today, and the people who he influenced under his tutelage,
I think that's a reasonable claim. He was the only church minister to be a signatory to the
Declaration of Independence. He was the only College Professor to be a signatory to the
Declaration of Independence. Now stop! These facts might just have flown by you without
you giving them a second thought, but let's think of the time that we're talking about.
To be the leader of the Presbyterian Church in the American colonies, to be the leader of the
university, educating, nurturing the future leaders of this new America, and the only person with those
two key roles in the life of the colonies who was also a political leader, founding father,
signatory to the document establishing the country which, whatever their politics, and I know they can
be pretty mental, right wing, rampant, capitalist, get my gun Martha we're going to hoe down, I know that
but, they have been the dominant power in our lifetimes. Now I'm not here to be a
cheerleader for America, although I know I've got a figure for it. I'm here to be a cheerleader
for Scotland. Now in the last four years, folks this side of the Atlantic have been way more interested
in American politics than at any time since the days of John Witherspoon. As America has
been tearing itself apart, we've heard names in news reports like Madison, the President and
great author of the American Constitution taught and influenced at Princeton by John
Witherspoon. Witherspoon insisted that all students take the classes in Moral Philosophy. In America he
cultivated ideas of democracy, freedom and liberty that he'd brought from Scotland. Of course, there
were some things that John Witherspoon didn't get until he arrived in America, like slaves, hmmm!
If you're watching this whether you're Scots or American, let's remember in our hubris
that we, our nations and our heroes are flawed and imperfect, but flawed or not, there can be few
Scottish Americans who had a greater impact in the development of the modern world than John
Witherspoon. You can buy me a coffee below to help support these videos, then please go and watch
'The American Jacobite', you'll find a link here. In the meantime tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.