James Abercrombie

James B. Abercrombie (1758–1841) was an American priest in St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Having lost his father at a very young age, Abercrombie was subsequently raised and educated by his devoutly religious mother who encouraged him to become a minister, to which he readily aspired and became.

Early years Abercrombie was born on January 26, 1758, in colonial Philadelphia. He was the only surviving child of his father James Abercrombie, a sea captain who came to the colonies from Dundee, Scotland, in 1753, (Abercrombie senior was also a relative of the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who was connected with the East India Company.) (At the time it was also referred to as the German Ocean.)

Around this time he came down with an eye disease, which was treated using silver nitrate by Dr. Grant, surgeon general to the British General Howe. After the British retreat, Thomas Bond (who later co-founded Pennsylvania Hospital) continued the treatment, eventually resulting in a cure. Too old to begin apprenticeship in another profession, Abercrombie formed a partnership with a close friend and took up work in the mercantile business for a short time. Soon he was chosen a member of the Common Council of the city of Philadelphia and was elected to the city council in 1792. Abercrombie grew weary of the mercantile business and longed for a change in his life.

Washington affair With the nation's capital located in Philadelphia at that time, President Washington was among the congregation in attendance at St. Peter's church while Abercrombie was a pastor there. Washington, along with others in the congregation, would exit the church after the religious ceremony and Abercrombie's sermon, leaving his wife Martha with the communicants to receive communion. In one definitive case, Abercrombie took exception to this advent and, considering it his duty, later said in one of his sermons that he was unhappy to see people in elevated stations not set an example by receiving communion. He later admitted in a letter that the remark was intended for the President, and indeed Washington had assumed the remark was directed at him.

Washington later discussed the incident with a Senator at a dinner and confided that he had respected the preacher for his integrity and candor, but that he had never considered his example was of any influence. Rarely if ever being a communicant, Washington felt that if he were to begin it would be seen as an ostentatious display of a President flaunting his religion solely prompted by the pastor's remarks. Historian Paul F. Boller suggests that Washington, a man who had helped to promote a major war, refrained from receiving communion simply because his heart and mind were not in "a proper condition to receive the sacrament", and that Washington simply did not want to indulge in what he felt would be an act of hypocrisy on his part.