AN AMERICAN school named after an East Lothian-born minister with links to the slave trade has had its name changed following a petition.

The John Witherspoon Middle School in Princeton, New Jersey, was named after the Rev Dr John Witherspoon, one of the founding fathers of the United States.

He was born in Gifford manse in 1723 – son of the Rev James Alexander Witherspoon, the then minister at Yester Kirk who is buried there.

John served as a minister himself in North Ayrshire and Renfrewshire and emigrated to New Jersey in 1768; he also became president of Princeton University.

He was the only clergyman to sign the United States’ Declaration of Independence. He died in New Jersey in 1794 and was buried at Princeton Cemetery.

The public school was named after him as a tribute to his achievements in his adopted homeland.

However, the clergyman also owned slaves at his 500-acre country estate and lectured and voted against the abolition of slavery in New Jersey.

Amid the Black Lives Matter movement and protests last summer, a petition was set up by Princeton High School graduate Geoffrey Allen, calling for the ‘John Witherspoon’ part of the name to be dropped due to his involvement in slavery. It attracted 1,550 signatures.

The petition was successful and the school’s board voted to remove the name.

It is now called Princeton Unified Middle School, a name that will be used until a permanent name can be selected, which must be done by the end of June.

Similarly, Princeton University voted to remove former university president and American President Woodrow Wilson’s name from the school of public and international affairs and residential college because of his “racist thinking and policies”.

Student protestors first called for the name to be removed in 2015, with the administration reconsidering in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor among others.