Robert Finley

Robert Finley
President of the University of Georgia
In office 1817–1817
Preceded by	John Brown
Succeeded by	Moses Waddel
Personal details
Born	1772 Princeton, New Jersey
Died	October 3, 1817 (aged 44–45) Athens, Georgia
Children	Robert Finley, Rev., Esther Caldwell
Alma mater	Princeton University

Robert Finley (1772 – October 3, 1817) was briefly the president of the University of Georgia. He initiated the American Colonization Society which founded Liberia. Finley was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) at the age of 15.

Finley was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1772 to James Finley and Ann Angrest. His father, James Finley, was born 1737 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was trained as a yarn merchant and where he became acquainted with Rev John Witherspoon who was then a pastor in the town of Paisley about six miles from Glasgow. James immigrated to New Jersey in 1769. His paternal grandparents were James Finley from Paisley, and Ann McDonald.

Robert Finley entered the College of New Jersey at the age of 11 and graduated in 1787. He taught at several places, including Charleston, South Carolina, where many slaves existed. The Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey licensed him as a minister in 1794. Finley returned to Princeton in 1793 to study Theology, and served as a tutor, eventually becoming a trustee of the university from 1806 until his resignation in 1817. In 1795, he was ordained as the Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Basking Ridge, where he served for 20 years as a popular preacher and noted educator, and originated the concept of the modern Sunday School curriculum.

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