Samuel Seabury


Samuel Seabury was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He was a leading Loyalist in New York City during the American Revolution and a known rival of Alexander Hamilton.

Early life

He was born in North Groton, Connecticut in 1729 in a home that still stands as a Historic Landmark on the corner of Church Hill Road and Spicer Hill Road in Ledyard, CT. His father, also Samuel Seabury, was originally a Congregationalist minister in Groton but was ordained deacon and priest in the Church of England in 1730. He was a rector in New London, Connecticut from 1732 to 1743, and of St George's, Hempstead, New York on Long Island from 1743 until his death.
He graduated from Yale College in 1748 and studied theology with his father. He studied medicine in Edinburgh from 1752 to 1753 and was ordained deacon by John Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln, and priest by Richard Osbaldeston, Bishop of Carlisle, on December 21 and 23 respectively, 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 from 1766 to 1775.

American Revolution and dispute with Alexander Hamilton

Seabury was one of the signatories of the White Plains Protest of April 1775 against all unlawful congresses and committees and, in many other ways, he proved himself a devoted Loyalist. He wrote "Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress" under the pen name A. W. Farmer, which was followed by "The Congress Canvassed". Alexander Hamilton responded to these open letters in "A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, from the Calumnies of their Enemies". Seabury wrote a third "Farmer's Letter" entitled "A View of the Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies" to answer Hamilton, and Hamilton completed the exchange by writing "The Farmer Refuted".
The three "Farmer's Letters" are forceful presentations of the Loyalist 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 authorship of a letter entitled "An Alarm to the Legislature of the Province of New York", not signed by the Westchester farmer, which discussed the power of what he viewed as the only legal political body in the colony. Seabury's clarity of style and general ease of reading 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; after some time in Long Island, he took refuge in New York City where he was appointed chaplain to the King's American Regiment in 1778. At the end of the war, he stayed in the United States; he moved to Connecticut and was loyal to the new government.

Later life

On March 25, 1783, a meeting of ten Episcopal clergy at the Glebe House in Woodbury, Connecticut elected Seabury bishop as their second choice. There were no Anglican bishops in America to consecrate him and so he sailed to London on July 7. In England, however, his consecration was considered to be impossible because, as an American citizen, he could no longer take the oath of allegiance to the King. He then turned to the Scottish Episcopal Church, although he had also approached the surviving non-juring bishops in England, William Cartwright of Shrewsbury and Kenrick Price of Manchester. At that time, the Episcopalians in Scotland were not the established church; they were a legally recognized but oppressed church which refused to recognize the Hanoverian kings. Earlier scandal had been caused by the presence of two non-juring bishops in America in the 1720s who were removed from their positions after being accused of schism in the Church of England in America.
Seabury was consecrated in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784 on the condition that he study the Scottish rite of Holy Communion 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. Seabury was consecrated bishop by Robert Kilgour, Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus of Scotland; Arthur Petrie, Bishop of Ross and Moray; and John Skinner, coadjutor bishop of Aberdeen. The consecration took place in Skinner's house in Longacre, approximately 500 metres from the present St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen. The chair on which Kilgour sat to perform the consecration is preserved in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Keith, Moray. The anniversary of his consecration is now a lesser feast day on the calendars of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada and other churches of the Anglican Communion.
Seabury's consecration by the non-juring Scots caused alarm in the 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 possible a continued relationship between the American and English churches. The problem was revealed not to be one of liturgical restrictions but of political plans.
Seabury returned to Connecticut in 1785 and made New London his home, becoming rector of St James Church there. A meeting of his Connecticut clergy was held during the first week of August 1785 at Christ Church on the South Green in Middletown. On August 3, the first Anglican ordinations on American soil took place at Christ Church in Middletown, and Henry Van Dyke, Philo Shelton, Ashbel Baldwin, and Colin Ferguson were ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons that day, with Ferguson being ordained priest on the 7th. Seabury said of Christ Church, 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."
In 1790, Seabury also took charge of the Diocese of Rhode Island. In 1792, he joined with Bishops William White, Samuel Provoost, and James Madison who had all received English consecration, thus uniting the Scottish and the English apostolic successions.

Contribution to liturgy

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 Liturgy of 1764 rather than the 1662 Book of Common Prayer in use in the Church of England. Seabury's defense of the Scottish service—especially its restoration of oblationary language and the epiklesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Prayer of Consecration was adopted into the Book of Common Prayer with minor change by the Episcopal Church in 1789. The English 1552, 1559, 1604 and 1662 Books of Common Prayers of Consecration ended with the Words of Institution; but the Scottish Rite Prayer continued with an oblation, anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions and doxology based on the ancient classical models of consecration prayers. The Prayer was a mix of Roman and Orthodox doctrines with some Calvinist elements. The English Rites focused on the memorial to the exclusion of sacrificial language in the Prayer of Consecration. Such sacrificial language as remained was placed at the end of the service in an optional Prayer of Oblation at which point the congregation made a self-offering beseeching God "to accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." The removal of oblation from the prayer of consecration was done in order to avoid the suggestion that the Holy Eucharist was a material Peace Offering to God made by his Church in and with Christ with the very same sacrifice he had offered once for all and now made present as a sacrament The restoration of the full Eucharistic Prayer taken from the Scottish Rite included the words, "which we now offer unto thee," after "with these thy holy gifts." The prayer continued after the oblationary words with, "the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make," in the American Prayer Book thereby restoring the connection between "prayers and supplications' and the self-offering of the congregation with and through the consecrated elements. The changes fairly undid Cranmer's intentions of 1549 and 1552. The adoption of the Scottish Rite brought the Episcopal Church's eucharistic doctrine closer to the tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The adoption of the Scottish Prayer of Consecration restored to the liturgy of the new Church the ancient doctrine from the mid-second century that the eucharist is the Church's sacrifice.
Also 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 within a century the custom of weekly 8 am Eucharist even in 'Low Church' parishes was rapidly spreading through many Anglican congregations under the impact of the Liturgical Movement. By the end of the 20th century many other Protestant denominations had adopted weekly communion if this had not already been their practice.
In Cheshire in 1794, he established the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, which later became Cheshire Academy.
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. A notable portrait hangs at the General Theological Seminary, and a smaller painting is to be found at the College of Preachers on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral.
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.

Consecrators

Samuel Seabury was the first bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church.

Family

His brother David Seabury was a Loyalist who moved to Nova Scotia. He returned to the United States in 1806.
His son Charles was rector in various Long Island churches.
A nephew, Seabury Tredwell, was the owner of the Old Merchant's House in Manhattan, now a museum.
A grandson, Samuel Seabury was an American Protestant Episcopal clergyman, as was that Seabury's son, William Jones Seabury.

Veneration

Seabury is commemorated in the Church of England on November 14, and his consecration is honored with a feast in the Episcopal Church 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.

Honors

Seabury Hall, at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, is named after Samuel Seabury. An Episcopal seminary, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, memorializes his honored position in the church. Bishop Seabury Academy in Lawrence, Kansas, and Seabury Hall in Makawao, Hawaii, are private schools, affiliated with the Episcopal Church, that also honor Seabury in the naming of their schools.

Publications

Seabury appears briefly in the 2015 musical Hamilton written by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the song "Farmer Refuted". He was played in the original cast by Thayne Jasperson.