Ashbel Green

Who was Ashbel Green?

Ashbel Green, D.D. was an American Presbyterian minister and academic.

Born in Hanover Township, New Jersey, Green served as a sergeant of the New Jersey militia during the American Revolutionary War, and went on to study with Dr. John Witherspoon and graduate as valedictorian from Princeton University in 1783. Green later became the third Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives from 1792 to 1800, the eighth President of Princeton University, from 1812 to 1822, and the second President of the Bible Society at Philadelphia after having been one its founding members in 1808.

He emancipated his family's slave Betsey Stockton in 1817, taught her and recommended her as a missionary to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, making her the first single female overseas missionary. He also published a periodical entitled the Christian Advocate.

Green married Elizabeth Stockton on November 3, 1785. They had three children: Robert Stockton Green, Jacob Green, and James Sproat Green, the latter of whom served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and was the father of Robert Stockton Green, Governor of New Jersey. After his first wife died in January 1807, he married Christina Anderson in October 1809. They had one child: Ashbel Green, Jr..