Samuel Seabury

1729-1796. First bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church (USA). Born in Groton, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale (1748), then studied theology and medicine in Edinburgh. He was ordained in 1753, served as a missionary in New Brunswick (1754-56), and thereafter was rector in Jamaica, Long Island (1757-66), where he also practiced medicine and taught school. He was rector in St. Peter's, Westchester, thereafter for eight years. His Tory sympathies, evidenced in pamphlets he wrote, brought brief imprisonment during the American Revolution, after which he went over to the British side and served as a hospital and later regimental chaplain. He was chosen bishop by Connecticut Episcopal clergymen in 1783 and consecrated in 1784 at Aberdeen by Scottish bishops. He served as rector of St. James's Church, New London, Connecticut (1785-96), and became presiding bishop of the new Protestant Episcopal Church in 1789 as well as being bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island. His death came while making parish calls.