JAMES MOGG SCRIPPS

(1803 – 1873)

Son of William Armiger Scripps of London, England, and father of James Edmund Scripps, emigrates from London, England, to America in 1844, with his third wife and six children by his second wife, his business as a book binder having failed. By sailing to the States they followed the path of their Scripps cousins westward.

Previously, brothers of William Armiger Scripps had previously emigrated in the 1790’s to Morgantown,Virginia, thereafter gradually moving west to the frontier of the Mississippi river territory, primarily Missouri around Cape Girardeau and St.Louis. John, one of William Armiger Scripps’s younger brothers, studied and became a Methodist-Episcopal circuit preacher appointed to various successive circuits in Indiana, Missouri and Illinois. The REVEREND JOHN SCRIPPS was appointed to preach to Methodist communities on the Illinois circuit in 1814, and eventually settled in Rushville, Illinois, where he also established a local newspaper, the Prairie Telegraph.

After JAMES MOGG SCRIPPS emigrated to the States, he traveled west to join his Uncle, the Reverend John Scripps, in Rushville, Illinois.

In all from his three wives James Mogg Scripps fathers 13 children, eleven of whom survive to adulthood.