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Francis Alison, D.D.

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Biography of Francis Alison (1705–1779), Irish‑born Presbyterian minister and educator who founded academies, engaged in the Old Side–New Side controversy, and was noted for piety and charity.
Archive ⬩ Church History, Autobiography, and Biography, Colonial Presbyterian History, Old Side-New Side Division
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Francis Alison, D.D. (1705–1779) was an influential Irish-born Presbyterian minister, educator, and scholar who arrived in Pennsylvania in the mid-1730s, was ordained in 1737, and founded a classical academy that became a key training ground for future leaders of church and state in colonial America. He served as Vice-Provost and Professor of Moral Philosophy at the College of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania), was a central figure in the Old Side of the Presbyterian Church during the Great Awakening controversy, and preached the sermon at the reunion of the Old and New Side synods in 1758. Alison was known as one of the greatest classical scholars in the colonies, helped establish the Widows’ Fund and other church institutions, and freed his slaves in his will upon his death in 1779.

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