EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 28th day of April, in the fortyfourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. Ď. 1820, S. POTTER, & Co., of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States of America. Containing, 1st. A Narrative of the Organization and of the early measures of the Church. 2dly. Additional statements and remarks. 3dly. An Appendix of Original Papers By Wm. White, D. D. Bishop of the Protestant church in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," and also to the act entitled "An act supplementary to an act entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,” and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.

DAVID CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

DEDICATION.

TO THE

BISHOPS

OF THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

MY MUCH ESTEEMED BRETHREN,

THE motive to the prefixing of a dedication to these memoirs, is the opportunity thus afforded of testifying to the church at large, the harmony which has subsisted among us in our joint counsels for the conducting of our ecclesiastical concerns. If, at any time there has been a shade of difference of opinion, it has been overbalanced by the pleasure of mutual concession, and by the profit of amicable discussion.

All of you have been ordained to the Episcopacy by my hands. Submission of opinion on this account, is what I have never had the arrogancy to claim: but if any degree of personal respect should be supposed a natural consequence, I can thankfully acknowledge, that it has been bestowed.

Having lived in days in which there existed prejudices in our land against the name, and much

more against the office of a bishop; and when it was doubtful, whether any person in that character would be tolerated in the community; I now contemplate nine of our number, conducting the duties of their office without interruption; and in regard not to them only, but to ten of us who have gone to their rest, I trust the appeal may be made to the world, for their not being chargeable with causes of offence to our fellow Christians and our fellow citizens generally, or with the assuming of any powers within our communion, not confessedly recognised by our Ecclesiastical institutions.

Being your senior by many years, I enjoy satisfaction in the expectation of the good which you may be expected to be achieving, in what is now our common sphere of action, when I shall be removed from it: and, with my prayers for the success of your endeavours to this effect, I subscribe myself your affectionate brother,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

MANY years ago, the author of the following work began to commit to writing the most material facts which had occurred, relative to the church of which he is a minister: intending, in the event of the continuance of life and health, to carry on the recital. This was not with a view to early publication, because of the small extent of the sphere, in which the detail of very recent events was likely to interest curiosity. Accordingly, what was thus prepared laid unnoticed, until an application was made about twelve years ago, by the editor of the American edition of Dr. Rees's Cyclopedia, requesting attention to certain parts of that work, with a view to other objects. On this occasion it occurred, that there might be propriety and use in inserting, in a work of that kind, a brief account of what had been transacted during some years preceding, within the Episcopal church. For this reason, there was made a draft from the notes before taken, for the purpose stated. As what remained comprehended sundry matters, not of suf

ficiently general concern for insertion in the Cyclopedia; it was afterwards reviewed under the impression that the time might come, when the former labour would not be unacceptable, within the communion for which it had been designed. In the present publication, the narrative has been continued to the present time. With it, there are given the matters kept back from the publication in the Cyclopedia; and a continuation of similar statements and remarks.

It has been occasionally suggested, from a knowledge of the materials in the hands of the author, and in consideration of the opportunities which he has possessed of personal observation of characters and of facts, that it would be better to embody the narrative with the remarks, and to make a history of the whole. The mere melting of them into one mass, after the separation of them as related above, did not seem likely to be fruitful of any considerable advantage: and as to the name of "a history," it would not only be disproportioned to the work, but perhaps pledge to an attempt, beyond what there are materials to accomplish. Of materials concerning the aggregate church, the author possesses all that are necessary, and more than will be here given; the view being confined to the more