Guide to the Gayley Family Papers

Samuel Maxwell Gayley was born in Ireland in 1802. He came to America in 1823. In 1828 he was licensed by the Reformed Presbytery of Philadelphia. He left the Reformed Church in 1833, becoming a member of New Castle Presbytery and accepting a call to Rockland Presbyterian Church, near Wilmington, DE. In addition to his pastoral duties, Gayley served as principal of the Wilmington Classical Institute. He died in 1862.

His nephew, Samuel Rankin Gayley, was also born in Ireland, in 1828. He arrived in America at the age of nineteen and joined his uncle in Wilmington, accepting a teaching position at the Classical Institute. He studied at Lafayette College and Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1856 the Board of Foreign Missions assigned him to China. He sailed in October of that year, and died on the field in 1862.