The Imperial Origins of the King's Church in Early America 1607-1783

by Bell, James B.

• ISBN13: 9781403932198
• ISBN10: 1403932190
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-28
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The experience of the King's church in Early America was shaped by the unfolding imperial policies of the English government after 1675. London-based civil and ecclesiastical officials supervised the extension and development of the church overseas. The recruitment, appointment and financial support of the ministers was guided by London officials. Transplanted to the New World without the traditional hierarchical structure of the church - no bishop served in the colonies during the colonial period - at the time of the American Revolution it was neither an English-American, or American-English church, yet modified in a distinctive manner.

Author Biography

James B. Bell is at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University, Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	x
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xx
Some Useful Dates	xxiii
Part I The Origins of Imperial Ecclesiastical Policies	1	(40)
1 The National Church: a Servant of Imperial Interests, 1584-1660	3	(7)
2 Bishops and Statesmen: New Policies for an Imperial Church	10	(16)
3 Royal Government, Royal Officials and the Church	26	(15)
Part II The Implementation of Imperial Policies by Civil and Church Officials	41	(64)
4 The Royal Governors and Ecclesiastical Duties	43	(15)
Francis Nicholson	47	(5)
Robert Hunter and Alexander Spotswood	52	(1)
Benning and John Wentworth	53	(5)
5 The Commissaries: Deputies of the Bishop of London	58	(16)
Establishing the office in the colonies	60	(1)
A profile of the commissaries	60	(2)
Commissarial duties	62	(3)
Commissarial courts	65	(6)
Controversies with governors	71	(3)
6 Clerical Incomes: Provincial Establishments	74	(16)
Provincial establishments:	75	(1)
Virginia	75	(6)
Maryland	81	(3)
New York	84	(1)
South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia	85	(5)
7 A Financial Lifeline from London: the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel	90	(15)
Congregational support	93	(2)
English livings, inheritance, and marriage	95	(1)
Supplemental fees	96	(3)
Comparative salaries: Massachusetts clergymen	99	(3)
Comparative salaries: civil servants, schoolmasters, and lawyers	102	(1)
Summary	103	(2)
Part III The American Experience Transforms the King's Church	105	(82)
8 Conventions of the Clergy	107	(18)
Anglican clergy conventions	110	(4)
The work of conventions	114	(6)
Charitable programs for widows and orphans	120	(5)
9 Local Parish Governance: the Americanization of the English Vestry	125	(17)
10 The Making of an Eighteenth-Century American Anglican Clergyman	142	(24)
Collegiate education	147	(3)
Post-collegiate preparation for the ministry	150	(7)
The transatlantic crossing	157	(1)
England and ordination	158	(6)
The consequences of independence	164	(2)
11 New England Critics of Imperial Church Policy	166	(21)
Summary	184	(3)
Part IV Consequences of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War	187	(23)
12 The King's Church: a Casualty of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War	189	(14)
Taking measure of the church in 1775: the national origins of the ministers	192	(6)
The number of primary and secondary churches	198	(2)
The ministers as casualties of the Independence movement and War	200	(3)
13 Epilogue	203	(7)
Appendix A: Colonial American governors who were members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel	210	(1)
Appendix B: Commissaries of the Bishops of London in America	211	(1)
Appendix C: Summary of S.P.G. financial aid to colonial clergymen	212	(8)
Notes	220	(45)
Bibliography	265	(28)
Index	293