Alexander McCaul

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Reverend Alexander McCaul (16 May 1799 – 13 November 1863) was an Irish Hebraist and missionary to the Jews.

Life

McCaul, the son of Alexander

To improve his health McCaul visited Ireland, and returned for a short time to Poland in 1832. Deciding to settle in London, he took up residence in Palestine Place, Cambridge Road and actively supported the London Society. He assisted in founding the Jews' Operatives Converts Institution, and in 1837 started the publication of Old Paths, a weekly pamphlet on Jewish ritual, which continued for sixty weeks.[2]

In 1840, McCaul was appointed principal of the Hebrew college founded by the London Society; and in the summer of 1841, through Frederick William IV of Prussia, he was offered the

McCaul died at the rectory, St Magnus-the-Martyr, near London Bridge, on 13 November 1863.^[2] He is buried in the City of London Cemetery in the north-east of the city.^[4]

Works

McCaul's major works:^[2]

• Plain Sermons on subjects Practical and Prophetic (1840).
• A Hebrew Primer (1844).
• Warburtonian Lectures (1st ser. 1846; 2nd ser. 1852).
• Scripture
  (1850).
• The Old Paths (1854).
• Some Notes on the first chapter of the Book of Genesis (1861; criticism of Essays and Reviews).
• Testimonies to the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures (1862).
• Reasons for Holding Fast the Authorized English Version of the Bible
• An Examination of
  George Anthony Denison's motion for the appointment of a committee — of which he was then a member — for the consideration of John Colenso
  's works on the Old Testament).

Family

Married in 1823, McCaul left several sons.[2] His daughter, Elizabeth Anne (1825–1921), writer and social activist, married James Finn, Consul to Ottoman Palestine,^[5] and founded the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, now known as Elizabeth Finn Care.

References

1. ^ City of London freedom certificate dated 28 October 1856
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "M'Caul, Alexander" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
3. ^ https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001652/18441216/013/0002 (subscription required)
4. ^ London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, by Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons
5. ISBN 0-8386-2271-2
   , p. 28

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "M'Caul, Alexander". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Further reading

• Finn, Elizabeth Anne (1929). Reminiscences of Mrs. Finn. London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott.
• Ruderman, David B. (2020). Missionaries, Converts, and Rabbis: The Evangelical Alexander McCaul and Jewish-Christian Debate in the Nineteenth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8122-5214-9
  .

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Alexander McCaul

• Works by or about Alexander McCaul at Internet Archive
• Works by Alexander McCaul, at
  Hathi Trust