President: 1838-1839
Fr. William McSherry S.J., served as Georgetown's 18th president from 1838-1839.
Early life and career
William McSherry was born on July 19, 1799, near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. His father, Richard McSherry, was an Irish immigrant planter who made his fortune trading with Jamaica. After attending Georgetown College between 1813 and 1815, William McSherry entered the Society of Jesus in 1815.
Between 1820 and 1828, William McSherry studied in Rome and Turin, Italy, to prepare for leadership positions in the Society in the United States. He was ordained as a priest (approximately) in 1825. Upon his return in 1828, he taught the Humanities at Georgetown College. In 1833, he was named Provincial of the newly-formed Maryland Province.1
Involvement in the 1838 sale of enslaved people
In 1837, during his tenure as superior of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, McSherry, along with then-Georgetown College president Fr. Thomas Mulledy, S.J., began organizing the principle sale of the 272 enslaved people owned by the Maryland Jesuits to two Louisiana businessmen; a sale which would be carried out in 1838. The bulk of the down payment received from the sale was used to help the financially insolvent Georgetown College. As part of the University’s efforts to reconcile with this history, the campus building formerly known as McSherry Hall was in 2017 officially renamed Anne Marie Becraft Hall, honoring the pioneer educator and free woman of color.
- 1Catalogues of the Mission and Province of Maryland, 1828-1860, Catalogues of New Society of Jesus, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI). https://arsi.jesuits.global/en/repertories/catalogs-of-new-society-of-jesus/
