Annan, Robert

Annan, Robert an Associate Reformed minister, was born in the town of Cupar, Fife, Scotland, in 1742. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews, and studied theology under the venerable Alexander Mooncrieff, one of the original Seceders; He was licensed by the Associate Presbytery of Perth when only about nineteen years of age, and shortly after sent by the Synod as a missionary to the American colonies. He arrived in New York in the summer of 1761, and, after four years of labor as an itinerant, he was ordained and installed as pastor at Neelytown, N. Y., in 1765. During the struggle for independence, Mr. Annanu was a warm advocate of the American cause, and labored both publicly and privately to that end. In 1783 he removed to Boston as pastor of the Federal Street Church. In 1786 he accepted a call from the Old Scots Church, Spruce Street, Philadelphia. He removed to Baltimore in 1801 or 1802, where he remained in charge of a new congregation formed in that city until 1812. He then retired to a home which he had purchased in York County, Pa., where he remained until his death, Dec. 5, 1819. He published, An Overture Illustrating and Defending the Doctrines of the Westminster. Confession of Faith (1787): — A Concise and Faithful Narrative of the Steps that led to the Division in the Associate Body of the United States (1789): — Animadversions on the Doctrine of Universal Salvation (1790): — and The Connection between Civil Government and Religion (eod.). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, IX, 4, 11.