Charles Thomson (1729–1824), the first secretary of the Continental Congress, created this Bible in the years following the American Revolution. Thomson was born in Ireland and immigrated to the colonies as a child. He later moved to Philadelphia, where he became involved in the movement for American independence. After retiring from government in 1789, he spent most of the next two decades translating this Bible from the Greek Septuagint. His translation was published in 1808 in four volumes by Jane Aitken, the daughter of Robert Aitken. The Thomson Bible is the first translation of the Septuagint published in English, and the first Bible printed by a woman in the United States.