Philip Vickers Fithian was a young theological student from Princeton, New Jersey, in 1773. In that year he also took a position as live-in tutor for the children of Robert Carter III at Carter's Westmoreland County plantation house, Nomini Hall. Fithian remained with the family until October 1774. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in December 1774. He married Elizabeth Beatty in October 1775 and enlisted as a military chaplain for the Revolutionary forces early in 1776. Fithian died of dysentery and exposure shortly after the Battle of White Plains in October 1776.