Dr George Washington Bethune was born in New York City in 1805. He studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and entered the Reformed Church in America, serving congregations in Rhinebeck , Utica, Philadelphia, Brooklyn Heights and New York City. He also supplied the American Chapel in Rome 1859-60. He died in Florence in 1862.
Bethune wrote extensively on many subjects, but his Expository Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism, published by the Trust in two volumes as Guilt, Grace and Gratitude, were sadly never completed.