George Spofford Woodhull

1773 - 1834  (61 years)

• Name	George Spofford Woodhull  [1]
  Birth	31 Mar 1773	Middlesex, New Jersey, United States
  Gender	Male
  Birth	31 Mar 1773
  Death	25 Dec 1834
  Person ID	I8270	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	16 Nov 2024

  
  

  Father	John Woodhull, Jr,   b. 26 Jan 1744   d. 22 Nov 1824 (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Sarah Spofford,   b. 26 Oct 1749, New Jersey, United States d. 14 Oct 1827, New Jersey, United States (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	28 May 1772  [1]
  Family ID	F3891	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Father	Rev. John Woodhull,   b. 26 Jan 1744, Miller Place, Suffolk, New York, USA d. 22 Nov 1824, Tennent, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Sarah Spofford,   b. 26 Oct 1749, New Jersey, United States d. 14 Oct 1827, New Jersey, United States (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	28 May 1772
  Family ID	F3905	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Gertrude Neilson,   b. Abt 1773   d. 13 Feb 1863 (Age 90 years)
  Children	1. Rev. William Henry Woodhull,   b. 4 Mar 1802   d. 4 Jan 1835 (Age 32 years)   2. Cornelia Neilson Woodhull,   b. 16 May 1803   d. 5 Nov 1824 (Age 21 years)   3. John Neilson Woodhull,   b. 25 Jul 1807   d. 12 Jan 1867 (Age 59 years)   4. Alfred Alexander Woodhull,   b. 25 Mar 1810   d. 5 Oct 1836 (Age 26 years)
  Family ID	F3906	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 May 2025

  
  

• Notes

  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XVII. GEORGE SPOFFORD WOODHULL, (Rev.), sixth generation from Richard Wodhull I., Patentee of Brookhaven, Long Island, was the eldest son of the Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., and Sarah Spofford. He was born at Leacock, Lancaster County, Pa., March 31, 1773. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1790, after which he studied law one year and medicine two years and then, it is said, through the influence of a sermon preached by his father, determined to enter the ministry. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick to preach the gospel, and was installed pastor of the church at Cranbury, New Jersey, June 6, 1798. In the following year he married Gertrude, the eldest daughter of Colonel John Neilson, of New Brunswick, New Jersey. For twenty-two years he preached at Cranbury, and it was said that "his ministry was faithful, noiseless and dignified." In 1820 he accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, New Jersey, where he was installed July 5, of the same year. His venerable father, the Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., of Freehold, New Jersey, presided. The Rev. Isaac V. Brown, D. D., of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, preached the installation sermon. The charge to the pastor was given by the Rev. Archibald Alexander, D. D., the charge to the people being given by the Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D. The Princeton pastorate was of twelve years' duration and "was marked by a greater increase in the church membership than that of any of his predecessors." He was a man well known for his public spirit and was possessed of a beautiful Christian character. His father once said of him, "I have no recollection of ever having occasion to reprove him in his life." Page 318 In April, 1811, he was one of the little band who gathered in Princeton and founded the New Jersey Bible Society, in which society he kept up a deep interest throughout his life. He it was who first suggested Bible Class instruction in churches, in 1815, having successfully tried it in his own. This wise suggestion was recommended to all the churches by the General Assembly and was finally introduced throughout the entire Presbyterian organization. He practiced "entire abstinence" long before the Temperance Reform commenced, and, following his earnest efforts to abolish the use of ardent spirits, in the year 1818, the General Assembly made solemn recommendations to all church officers upon the subject. This was eight years before the formation of the American Temperance Society. A temperance pledge bearing date as far back as 1815, and signed by several members of his congregation was found among his papers after his death. He was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey for many years and was one of the Incorporators of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary, and was a member of that Board from 1822, the date of the incorporation until his death. In 1832 he resigned his Princeton pastorate and accepted a call to Middletown Point (now Matawan), New Jersey. He died there December 25, 1834, after a brief pastorate of about two years. In 1835, the Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D., preached a sermon in memoriam, at the request of his former Princeton congregation. He paid a beautiful and fitting tribute to him in the following words: "His history is his portrait. It has been my lot within the last forty years of my life to be acquainted with many hundred ministers of the Gospel of various denominations, and with not a few of them to be on what might be called intimate terms, and although I have known a number of more splendid, of more impressive eloquence than your late pastor, yet in the great moral qualities which go to form the good man, the exemplary Christian, the diligent and untiring pastor, the benevolent neighbor and citizen, and the dignified, polished, perfect gentleman, I have seldom known his equal, and I think never on the whole his superior." His was an eminently blameless life, a remarkably successful ministry. One has said of him that he was "calm and holy to the last." The Rev. George Spofford Woodhull left a widow and three sons. (See Genealogy, No. 134.)

  
  

• Sources

  [S58] Ruth Tangier Smith, M.D. and Henry Bainbridge Hoff, The Tangier Smith Family: Descendents of Colonel William Smith of The Manor of St. George, Long Island, New York (The Order of colonial Lords of Manors in America. Publication No. 34. 1978.), p. 16.