Thomas H. Stockton

Thomas H. Stockton (1808–1868) served as the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives in 1833, 1835, 1859 and 1861. He was also the pastor of the First Methodist Church in Philadelphia and the editor of Christian World.

Stockton was born at Mount Holly, New Jersey. His father, William S. Stockton, was the founder and editor of the Wesleyan Repository. He joined the Methodist Protestant Church and was closely associated with their founder, Thomas Dunn. He began his career as a minister as a preacher on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1830 ,he was appointed minister of two Methodist Churches in Baltimore. He was involved in the formal organization of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1830. In 1837. Stockton compiled a hymnbook.

He was minister at the Methodist Church in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., where he served as the chaplain in the U.S. House of Representatives. He then served from 1838 to 1847 as a minister in Philadelphia and as a minister in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1850, Stockton attempted to set up an independent, non-denomination church. He was elected president of Miami University, but declined the appointment.

In 1850, Stockton returned to Baltimore and the Methodist Protestants.

Stockton gave the opening prayer at the consecration of the National Cemetery Gettysburg, the ceremony during which Abraham Lincoln later gave the Gettysburg Address.

Stockton is buried in Section 7, Lot 58, in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Works The Book Above All - The Holy Bible the Only Sensible, Infallible and Divine Authority on Earth (1871)