Alexander Craighead
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Alexander Craighead (ca. 1700 - 1766) was an Irish-born American preacher.
He was born in Donegal, Ulster, Ireland sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s, and came to North America with his father, the Reverend Thomas Craighead. He preached at the Middle Octorara Church, along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, during the 1730s, but continued to move south and west to the frontiers of colonial civilization. After a stay in Augusta County, Virginia, at Windy Cove, Craighead moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
"Another group of pioneers (Ulster Scots) settled nearer the present site of Charlotte and organized the Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church in 1755, with Rev. Craighead serving as pastor of both the Rocky River church and the Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church from the time each was organized until [his death in] 1766. Details of his long, eventful, and sometimes turbulent life are recorded in numerous places, notably The Presbyterian Church at Rocky River, by Thomas Hugh Spence, Jr. (1954) and A History of Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church, by Neill Roderick McCeachy (1954)."
A prolific writer and leader in his faith, Rev. Craighead had numerous published works, including Renewal of the Covenants, National and Solemn League; A Confession of Sins; An Engagement to Duties; and a Testimony; as they were Carried on at Middle Octorara in Pennsylvania, November 11, and The reasons of Mr. Alexander Craighead's receding from the present judicatories of this church..., 1743, both published by Ben Franklin.
Considered a promoter of the "Revival" and a participant in the "Great Awakening", Craighead was a vocal critic of King George III and the Church of England. He often preached to his flock to resist threats to their independence, and held the rights of the common man as sacred as that of kings. He is counted as the spiritual father of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was written nine years after his death.
The Rev. Craighead died in 1766, and was buried in the oldest burial ground of Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church, on Craighead Road off North Tryon Street in Charlotte, N.C..
