Philip Vickers Fithian 13281hpr 2494f213f6d620f-scaled

Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776) was a peripatetic American tutor, best known for his journals and letters from 1773 to 1774 when he tutored at a

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

plantation.

Biography

Philip Fithian was born in

Greenwich Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey Greenwich Township () is the westernmost township in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 804, reflecting a decline of 43 (−5.1%) from the 847 counted in the 2000 C ...

, in 1747. His parents, Joseph and Hannah (Vickers) Fithian, were

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

grain growers. As the eldest of seven children, Fithian was destined to inherit the family farm and spend the rest of his life working it as Joseph had taught him. A lifelong

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

, Fithian had a

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

experience during a local evangelical revival in 1766. The experience led him to consider a career as a Presbyterian clergyman. After convincing his father of the value of an advanced education, he enrolled at the local Presbyterian academy run by Deerfield Presbyterian minister Enoch Green. At age twenty-three, Fithian left his home in Cohansey, New Jersey, to go to Princeton's College of New Jersey. He spent two years at Princeton and graduated in 1772. During his final year of studies, both of Fithian's parents died (the cause of death is unknown), leaving him to care for his six siblings. Fithian returned home to do advanced ministerial studies with Green at Deerfield rather than accept an invitation from College of New Jersey president

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense reali ...

to stay and study with him at Princeton. After a year at home and at Witherspoon's advice, Fithian postponed his ministerial ordination to accept a position as a tutor to the family of

Robert Carter III Robert "Councillor" Carter III (February 28, 1728 – March 10, 1804) was a lawyer and planter from the Northern Neck of Virginia, in what became the United States. For two decades he sat on the Colonial Virginia Governor's Council. After the ...

at his "Nomini Hall" plantation on the

Northern Neck The Northern Neck is the northernmost of three peninsulas (traditionally called "necks" in Virginia) on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia (along with the Middle Peninsula and the Virginia Peninsula ...

. During his trip to Virginia, Fithian recorded the famous diary that today serves as one of our most valuable sources on early Virginia life. His diary offers his observations on Virginia's

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, plantation life, education, entertainment, and religion. In 1775 and 1776, Fithian was sent to the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...

in Virginia and the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

Valley in Pennsylvania as a missionary to the Scots-Irish Presbyterian settlements in the region. On October 25, 1775, Philip married Elizabeth Beatty, the daughter of noted Presbyterian clergyman Charles Beatty. Shortly after his wedding, he completed his missionary tour of the backcountry and then joined a New Jersey state militia regiment as a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

. Fithian witnessed the

Battle of Long Island The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn, New Yo ...

and the

Battle of Harlem Heights The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place on September 16, 1776, in what is now the Morningside Heights area and east into the future Harlem neigh ...

before he died of camp fever near Fort Washington on 9 October 1776. Fithian was highly critical of the harsh treatment of enslaved African-Аmericans by many Virginia plantation owners.Peter Kolchin, ''American Slavery'', Penguin History, paperback edition, p.51

Bibliography

*John Fea, ''The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America'' Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008 (http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14442.html) *Hunter Dickinson Farish, ed., ''Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774'' Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1947 *Robert A. Peterson, ''Patriots, Pirates, and Pineys Sixty Who Shaped New Jersey'' Medford, NJ: Plexus Publishing, Inc., 1998

References

External links

* *
Information from the Library of Congress

Presbyterians in Love
Philip Vickers Fithian Journal Edited by John Rogers Williams
a
Princeton University Library Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fithian, Philip Vickers 1747 births 1776 deaths Princeton University alumni American Presbyterians People from Greenwich Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey American diarists 18th-century diarists 18th-century Presbyterians 18th-century American educators People of New Jersey in the American Civil War 18th-century American male writers Educators from New Jersey