Rev. Leonard Cutting (1724-1794)

He was born at Great Yarmouth in England to an old family prominent in Norfolk. He was orphaned at the age of nine and then brought up by his aunt. He was educated at Eton and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He quickly exhausted his inheritance and set sail for America but not having enough money to pay his way he worked off the cost by doing physical labor on a farm, first in Virginia and then in New Jersey. Running into an old friend from Cambridge, he was employed as a private tutor which enabled him to take a Master's Degree at Columbia before becoming Professor of Greek and Latin there while preparing for a career in the church. Having been ordained in England in 1763, he returned to America and served with the Episcopal Church in New Jersey before becoming Rector of Hempstead on Long Island while also running a classical school. After the Revolution, he was a Rector in Maryland and North Carolina before retiring to New York where he was Secretary to the House of Bishops. In 1761, he married Ann Frances Gombauld of Monmouth, New Jersey, and they had 2-sons.