Biography

1725 - 1795

Born in County Armagh, Ireland, February 1725, the Hon. James Finley was educated at Fagg's Manor, under Samuel Blair; was licensed by the New Castle Presbytery, and installed pastor of East Nottingham, on the Rock, in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1752. Mr. Finley crossed the Alleghenies in 1765, and again in 1767, and by the direction of the Synod, supplied Ligonier, and the vacancies beyond the mountains for two months, in 1771-2. His pastoral relation at Nottingham, against the remonstrance of an attached people, was dissolved, May 17th, 1782. He was not dismissed to Redstone Presbytery till April 26th, 1785, and he was received by that body June 21st. He was called to Rehoboth and Round Hill, both in the forks of the Youghiogheny, in the Fall of 1784, and remained there till his death, January 6th, 1795. On removing to the West, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania entrusted important business to Mr. Finley, and commissioned him as a Justice of the Peace and a Judge of the Common Pleas.