  Charles Thomson (1729-1824) made the first English translation of the New Testament published in America
and the first translation of the Septuagint into the English language
(The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament
made in the third century B.C. This was the translation often quoted by
the apostles). Thomson immigrated to this country from Ireland in 1739.
When Congress was organized in 1774, he was elected secretary. He held
the post throughout the American Revolution and until the adoption of
the Constitution in 1789. Thomson spent the next twenty years working
on his translation. After copying the manuscript four times, he had it
published by Jane Aitken, the first woman to print any part of the Holy
Scripture in America. Her father, Robert Aitken, published the first
Bible in English ever printed in America in 1782. It is of interest
that the name "Cha. Thomson" appears as the signer of the Congressional
resolution in the front of the 1782 Aitken Bible.
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