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FDU PRESS
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| Scholarly Review |
 | Samuel Seabury and Charles Inglis
ISBN# 9780838642573
Reviewed by: Joan R. Gunderson, University of Pittsburgh
Anglican & Episcopal History, Vol. 80:3, (9/2011) |
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This slim volume is designed as a comparison of the first two bishops in North American within the Anglican tradition. Each chapter follows a similar pattern, with subsections devoted to each individual bishop and other subsections providing context and the role of the two bishops in specific events.
Samuel Seabury and Charles Inglis were both sons of Church of England ministers; both supported controversial efforts to bring a bishop to the colonies, wrote pamphlets critical of the move to independence in New York, and served at Trinity Church during the British occupation of the city. However, Yale graduate Seabury was a native of Connecticut and had strong family ties to New York and Connecticut. Inglis was an immigrant from Ireland whose family financial reverses had prevented him from attending a university. Both men made the trip from the colonies to England for ordination, and both would return to England at the close of the War for Independence. Inglis arrived in England as a Loyalist exile and soon became the chief candidate for a potential see in Novia Scotia. Seabury arrived later seeking consecration as the first bishop for the Americas after election by a handful of Connecticut Loyalist clergy. Seabury eventually would be the first bishop consecrated for the former colonies, but it was non-juring Scottish bishops who ordained him. Inglis became the first bishop consecrated by English bishops for the Americas. Shortly after Inglis' consecration, the English bishops ordained William White and Samuel Provoost who had come seeking consecration with the support of the General Convention and their state conventions.
The book includes much interesting information (especially on Inglis).
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