Ralph Randolph Gurley (1797–1872)
Ralph Randolph Gurley and Bushrod Washington were both officers of the American Colonization Society.
Ralph Randolph Gurley was born on 26 May 1797 in Lebanon, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale, he moved to Washington, D.C., where the Presbyterian Church licensed him to preach. Despite never being ordained, he had two stints as chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives (1830–31, 1847–51). In 1822 he joined the American Colonization Society, which he would serve over the next fifty years as agent, secretary, corresponding secretary, vice president, and honorary life director.
"Ralph Randolph Gurley." Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2310012188/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=2e9e3701. Accessed 15 Sept. 2023.
"From James Madison to Ralph Randolph Gurley, 6 August 1825," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-03-02-0592. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 1 March 1823 – 24 February 1826, ed. David B. Mattern, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Katherine E. Harbury. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, p. 571.]
Drew R. McCoy, The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 165, 299, 301.
Albert E. Gurley, The History and Genealogy of the Gurley Family (Hartford, CT: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1897), 72.
Journal of Ralph R. Gurley, 1837–1840, American Colonization Society Papers, Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Ralph Randolph Gurley Letter, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth University, Hanover, New Hampshire.
"History of the Chaplaincy," Office of the Chaplain: United States House of Representatives.
Ralph Randolph Gurley at History, Art & Archives: United States House of Representatives.
Rev Ralph Randolph Gurley at Find a Grave.
Rev Ralph Randolph Gurley at FamilySearch.