James Hall Mason Knox

Reverend James Hall Mason Knox D.D., LL.D (June 10, 1824 – January 21, 1903) was a Presbyterian divine and educator, serving as the 8th president of Lafayette College.

Early life Knox was born in New York City in 1824. His father, Rev. John Knox D.D., was the head pastor of the Collegiate Dutch Church for forty years, and his mother was the eldest daughter of John M. Mason.

Knox attended Columbia College, graduating in 1841, before studying theology at the Seminary of the Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1845, he was licensed to preach by the classis of New York, and was ordained in September 1846 by the presbytery of Newton, New Jersey. He then went to the Reformed Dutch Church in Easton, Pennsylvania, for a period of two years, where he began a relationship with nearby Lafayette College, eventually joining its board of trustees. Following this, he was the pastor for sixteen years at the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Pennsylvania, before being transferred to Bristol, Pennsylvania, where he spent the next ten years. Fayerweather left many small fortunes to colleges around the country, and to Lafayette he left the amount of $100,000 (equivalent to $ in dollars), and later had a dormitory on campus named after him.

In 1861, Knox received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from his alma mater, Columbia College. Later, he received the honorary degree of Legum Doctor from the same college in 1885.

Knox died of pneumonia on January 21 in his home in Baltimore.