James Abercrombie

James B. Abercrombie (1758–1841) was an American priest in St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Having lost his father at a very young age, Abercrombie was subsequently raised and educated by his devoutly religious mother who encouraged him to become a minister, to which he readily aspired and became. Early years Abercrombie was born on January 26, 1758, in colonial Philadelphia. He was the only surviving child of his father James Abercrombie, a sea captain who came to the colonies from Dundee, Scotland, in 1753, and Margaret Bennet, his second wife. The elder Abercrombie was a captain in the British Navy. When James Jr. was two years old, his father died while at sail in the North Sea. As a youth Abercrombie was instructed for several years by his mother, a very intelligent and devotedly pious woman, who educated him with great care, in the hope that he would aspire in becoming a minister of the Gospel. James showed signs of aspiring to this profession as soon as he learned to read. For example, on Sunday evenings James would stand on a chair, using it as a pulpit, wearing a white apron around his shoulders as a surplice and imagining he was a preacher. He later attended an English academy run by a Dr. Gardiner for three years. He next studied at the College of Philadelphia, graduating in June 1776. He had intended to travel to England study at a seminary, but that became impossible because of the start of the American Revolution. He instead began his theological training with William White in Philadelphia until the summer of 1778.