John Archer was my fifth great-grandfather. My grandfather, the Rev. Samuel Carson Wasson (died 1915), graduated from Princeton and then Princeton Theological Seminary. He became the minister of the Churchville Presbyterian Church in Churchville, Maryland, where John Archer’s house, Medical Hall, still stands. He married a descendant, Mary Archer, and hence my connection. My father, the Rev. Samuel Carson Wasson Jr., was also a Presbyterian minister, also trained at Princeton Theological Seminary. John Archer was a major during the American Revolution and signed the Bush Declaration, which preceded the Declaration of Independence. Alas, he was also a slave owner, as were a number of his progeny, many of whom were physicians. The Archers were a historic Maryland family with strong Princeton connections, but also with despicable connections to slavery straight through to the Civil War.
John Archer was my fifth great-grandfather. My grandfather, the Rev. Samuel Carson Wasson (died 1915), graduated from Princeton and then Princeton Theological Seminary. He became the minister of the Churchville Presbyterian Church in Churchville, Maryland, where John Archer’s house, Medical Hall, still stands. He married a descendant, Mary Archer, and hence my connection. My father, the Rev. Samuel Carson Wasson Jr., was also a Presbyterian minister, also trained at Princeton Theological Seminary. John Archer was a major during the American Revolution and signed the Bush Declaration, which preceded the Declaration of Independence. Alas, he was also a slave owner, as were a number of his progeny, many of whom were physicians. The Archers were a historic Maryland family with strong Princeton connections, but also with despicable connections to slavery straight through to the Civil War.