FINLEY, SAMUEL: American Presbyterian, fifth president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton); b. in County Armagh, Ireland, 1715; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., July 17, 1766. Having received a good education from his parents, who were of Scottish descent, he came to Philadelphia in 1734, and studied for the ministry. He was ordained by the New Brunswick presbytery in 1742 and sent to Milford, Conn., in 1843, but for preaching to the Second Society at New Haven, in violation of the statute forbidding itinerant ministers to preach in any parish without the consent of the pastor, he was expelled from the colony as a vagrant a few months later. In 1744 he accepted a call to Nottingham, Md., where he established an academy which acquired considerable fame. He remained at Nottingham till 1761, when he succeeded Samuel Davies as president of the College of New Jersey. Though he never published anything but occasional sermons he enjoyed a great reputation as a scholar, and in 1763 received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow. Among his sermons may be mentioned, Christ Triumphing and Satan Raging (1741), The Curse of Meroz (1757), and On the Death of President Davies (1761).