Samuel Seabury (November 30, 1729 – February 25, 1796) was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He had been a leading Loyalist in New York City during the American Revolution.
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Samuel Seabury was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1729. His father, also Samuel Seabury (1706–1764), originally a Congregationalist minister in Groton, was ordained deacon and priest in the Church of England in 1731, and was a rector in New London, Connecticut, from 1732 to 1743, and in Hempstead, Long Island, from 1743 until his death.
Samuel Seabury (the son) graduated from Yale in 1748, and studied theology with his father. He studied medicine in Edinburgh from 1752 to 1753 and was ordained deacon by the bishop of Lincoln and priest by the bishop of Carlisle in 1753. Seabury was rector of Christ Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey from 1754 to 1757, rector in Jamaica, New York from 1757 to 1766, and of St Peter's, Westchester (now annexed to The Bronx) from 1766 to 1775.
He was one of the signers of the White Plains protest of April 1775 against all unlawful congresses and committees, in many other ways proved himself a devoted loyalist, and wrote the Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress (1774) by A. W. Farmer (i.e. a Westchester farmer), which was followed by a second "Farmer's Letter", The Congress Canvassed (1774). Alexander Hamilton answered these open letters in A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress, from the Calumnies of their Enemies. Seabury wrote a third "Farmer's Letter" titled, "A View of the Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies," to answer Hamilton. Hamilton completed the exchange by writing, "The Farmer Refuted" (1775).
These three "Farmer's Letters" — a fourth was advertised but apparently was never published — were forceful presentations of the pro-British claim, written in a plain, hard-headed style; their authorship was long in question, but it is certain that Seabury claimed them in England in 1783 when he was seeking episcopal consecration. At the same time he claimed the authorship of a letter, not signed by the Westchester farmer, which under the title An Alarm to the Legislature of the Province of New York (1775) discussed the power of this, the only legal political body in the colony. Seabury's clarity of style and general ease of reading would set him apart from his ecclesiastical colleagues throughout his life.
Seabury was arrested in November 1775 by local Patriots, and was kept in prison in Connecticut for six weeks. He was prevented from carrying out his ministry, and after some time in Long Island he took refuge in New York City, where in 1778 he was appointed chaplain to the King's American Regiment. At the end of the war he did not return to England but stayed in the United States; he moved to Connecticut and was loyal to the new government.
On March 25, 1783, a meeting of ten Episcopal clergy in Woodbury, Connecticut, elected Seabury bishop as their second choice (a favorite son was elected first, but declined for health reasons). There were no Anglican bishops in the Americas to consecrate him, so he sailed to London on July 7. In England, however, his consecration was rationalized as impossible because, as an American citizen, he could no longer take the oath of allegiance to the King. Seabury then turned to the Scottish Episcopal Church, whose bishops at that time refused to recognize the authority of King George III. He was consecrated in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784, with the one condition that in the matter of the Holy Communion he study the Scottish Rite and work for its adoption rather than the English rite of 1662. To the present day the American liturgy adheres to the main features of this Rite in one of its Holy Eucharist Liturgies. The anniversary of his consecration is now a lesser feast day on the calendars of both the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Anglican Church of Canada. The fact of Seabury's consecration by the non-juring Scots caused alarm in the (Whig) British Government, who feared an entirely Jacobite church in the United States, and Parliament was persuaded to make provision for the ordination of foreign bishops. Seabury's tenacity in the matter had the effect of making a continued relationship between the American and English churches a possibility. The problem was revealed not to be one of liturgical restrictions (the oath) but of political plans.
Seabury returned to Connecticut in 1785 and made New London, Connecticut his home, becoming rector of St James Church there. A meeting of his Connecticut clergymen was held during the first week of August 1785 at Christ Church on the South Green in Middletown, Connecticut. At the August 2nd reception of the bishop his letters of Consecration were requested, read, and accepted. On August 3, 1785 the first ordinations on American soil took place there, at Christ Church in Middletown, Connecticut. Four men, Henry Van Dyke, Philo Shelton, Ashbel Baldwin, and Colin Ferguson, were ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons that day. On August 7, 1785 Collin Ferguson was advanced to the Priesthood, and Thomas Fitch Oliver was admitted to the Diaconate. Bishop Seabury said, prophetically, of Christ Church in Middletown, "Long may this birthplace be remembered, and may the number of faithful stewards who follow this succession increase and multiply till time shall be no more". Over the next 100 years there were 274 ordinations in Middletown. The validity of his consecration was at first questioned by some, but was recognized by the General Convention of his church in 1789. In 1790 Seabury took charge of the diocese of Rhode Island also. In 1792 he joined with Bishops William White and Samuel Provoost, who had received English consecration in 1787, and James Madison (1749–1812), who had received English consecration in 1790, in the consecration of Bishop Thomas J. Claggett of Maryland in 1792, thus uniting the Scottish and the English successions.
Seabury played a decisive role in the evolution of Anglican liturgy in North America after the Revolution. His "Communion Office," published in New London in 1786, was based on the Scottish Book of Common Prayer rather than the 1662 liturgy in use in the Church of England. Seabury's defense of the Scottish service—especially its restoration of the epiklesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit in the consecration of the Communion elements—influenced the first Book of Common Prayer adopted by the Episcopal Church in 1789. The English 1662 Prayer Book Prayer of Consecration ended with the Words of Institution. But the Scottish Rite continued from that point with a Prayer of Oblation based on the ancient classical models of Consecration Prayers found in Roman and Orthodox Christianity (this prayer in the English Rite had been detached and placed at the end of the service as a kind of Prayer of Thanksgiving for Communion in order to avoid the suggestion that the Holy Eucharist was a Sacrifice or Offering to God by his Church in union with Christ). Thus the Episcopal Church's practice was brought closer to the tradition of the Roman church. In addition to the epiklesis Seabury argued for the restoration of another ancient custom: the weekly celebration of Holy Communion on Sunday rather than the infrequent observance that became customary in most Protestant churches after the Reformation. In "An Earnest Persuasive to Frequent Communion," published in 1789 in New Haven, he wrote that "when I consider its importance, both on account of the positive command of Christ, and of the many and great benefits we receive from it, I cannot but regret that it does not make a part of every Sunday's solemnity." Seabury was ahead of his time, but two centuries later the custom of weekly Eucharist was rapidly spreading through many Protestant and Anglican congregations under the impact of the Liturgical Movement.
He died in New London on 25 February 1796, where his remains lie in a small chapel at St. James. The church also features a stained glass window depicting his consecration in Scotland. Seabury's portrait, by Ralph Earl, is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Another notable portrait hangs at the General Theological seminary and yet another (smaller) painting is to be found at the College of Preachers on the grounds of the National Cathedral in Washington.
Seabury was a superior organizer and a strict churchman. Seabury's "Farmer's Letters" rank him as the most vigorous American loyalist controversialist and, along with his prayers and devotional writings, one of the greatest masters of style of his period. His printed sermons and essays enjoyed wide readership well after his death.
Samuel Seabury was the 1st bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church.
His son Charles (1770–1844) was rector in various Long Island churches; and Charles's son Samuel (1801–1872), who graduated from Columbia in 1823, was rector of the Church of the Annunciation in New York City from 1838–1868, and professor of Biblical learning and the Interpretation of Scriptures in the General Theological Seminary from 1862. William Jones Seabury (b. 1837), son of the last named, was rector of the Church of the Annunciation, from 1868 to 1898, professor of ecclesiastical polity and law in the General Theological Seminary from 1873, and published a Manual for Choristers (1878), Lectures on Apostolic Succession (1893) and An Introduction to the Study of Ecclesiastical Polity (1894). William Jones Seabury's son Samuel Seabury (1873–1958) was a judge of the New York Court of Appeals.
Seabury is honored in the Church of England on November 14 and his consecration is honored with a feast in the Episcopal Church (USA) on the same date. The observance is also found in other Anglican Churches including The Anglican Church of Canada Book of Alternative Services and the Scottish Episcopal Church [Revised Scottish Calendar, 1991].
Seabury Hall, at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, is named after Samuel Seabury.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
| Episcopal Church (USA) titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New Diocese |
1st Bishop of Connecticut November 14, 1784 – 1796 |
Succeeded by Abraham Jarvis |
| Preceded by William White |
2nd Presiding Bishop October 5, 1789 – September 8, 1792 |
Succeeded by Samuel Provoost |
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