Finlay, John, Dd

Finlay, John, D.D.

a Baptist minister, was born in the parish of Loudofin, Ayrshire, Scotland, March 10, 1794. He was educated in the Scottish Kirk; graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1810; was converted under the ministry of Dr. Chalmers; came to America in 1817, and, soon after landing at Savannah, went to Augusta, Georgia, where he was elected rector of Richmond Academy. He was licensed by the Harmony Presbytery, and, for a time, preached in the "Brick Church" in Augusta; subsequently went to New York, where, uniting with Dr. Arch. McClay's Church, he was licensed as a Baptist preacher; soon after was ordained in Albany, N.Y., where he was pastor until called to the First Church in Baltimore, in 1821. In 1835 he removed to Jackson, Tennesee, preaching and teaching for a time until a church was formed. Subsequently he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was pastor a year and a half; then returned to Jackson; next went to Middleton, Ohio, then to Lebanon, and in the fall of 1849 to Memphis, Tennesee, where he remained till the spring of 1852. He died at Greenville, on the Mississippi, about 1860. See Borum, Sketches of Tenn. Ministers, pages 254, 263. (J.C.S.)