Thomas Ustick

Thomas Ustick (1753-1803) graduated from the Baptist College in Rhode Island (now Brown University) in 1771, after which he pastored Baptist churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts before settling in Philadelphia in 1782, where he served as senior pastor of Philadelphia’s First Baptist Church from 1782 until his death in 1803. He also operated a bookshop and was a librarian. From 1784 to 1791 he served in an ex officio capacity as a trustee of the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania). Like his friend William Rogers, he also was a member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. See Act of Incorporation and Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society, for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery: and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race: Also, a List of Those who have been Elected Members of the Society (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, 1860), 23.