Robert Jefferson Breckinridge

Robert Jefferson Breckinridge
Born	March 8, 1800 Cabell's Dale, Kentucky
Died	December 27, 1871(1871-12-27) (aged 71) Danville, Kentucky
Education	Union College (B.A., 1819) Princeton University (Honorary M.A., 1832) Jefferson College (Honorary LL.D., 1847) Harvard University (LL.D., 1862)
Spouse(s)	Ann Sophonisba Preston Virginia Hart Shelby Margaret Faulkner White
Children	W. C. P. Breckinridge Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, Sr. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Jr.
Parent(s)	Senator John and Mary Hopkins (Cabell) Breckinridge
Church	Presbyterian
Ordained	April 5, 1832
Congregations served	Second Presbyterian Church (Baltimore, Maryland) First Presbyterian Church (Lexington, Kentucky)
Offices held	Kentucky state representative Superintendent of public education in Kentucky

Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (March 8, 1800 – December 27, 1871) was a politician and Presbyterian minister. He was a member of the Breckinridge family of Kentucky, the son of Senator John Breckinridge.

A restless youth, Breckinridge was suspended from Princeton University for fighting, and following his graduation from Union College in 1819, was prone to engage in a lifestyle of partying and revelry. But, he was admitted to the bar in 1824 and elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825. A serious illness and the death of a child in 1829 prompted him to turn to religion, and he became an ordained minister in 1832.

That year Breckinridge accepted the call to pastor the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland. While at the church, he became involved in a number of theological debates. During the Old School-New School Controversy within the Presbyterian Church in the 1830s, Breckinridge became a hard-line member of the Old School faction, and played an influential role in the ejection of several churches in 1837. He was rewarded for his stances by being elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly in 1841.

After a brief stint as president of Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky, where he pastored the First Presbyterian church of Lexington, Kentucky, and was appointed superintendent of public education by Governor William Owsley. The changes he effected in this office brought a tenfold increase in public school attendance and led to him being called the father of the public school system in Kentucky. He left his post as superintendent after six years to become a professor at Danville Theological Seminary in Danville, Kentucky.