"'Anglican frontiersmen' : the lives and ministries of missionaries serving the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in eighteenth century New England"

Author

Benton Earl Gates

Date of Award

5-1997

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

History

Major Professor

William Bruce Wheeler

Committee Members

Elaine M. Breslaw, John Bohstedt, Paul H. Bergeron, Charles E. Caudill, Cathy Matson

Abstract

This dissertation explores the lives and ministries of seven men who served as missionaries for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in eighteenth century New England. These men, and their colleagues, were seeking to strengthen the position of the Anglican Church in a region of British North America dominated by non-conforming Congregationalism. other studies of the SPG, this dissertation develops six chapter-length narratives of the experiences of seven separate missionaries. The focus on this voluntary British society is therefore less institutional than other studies. The methods by which these men propagated Anglicanism and the adversity they faced in the attempt forms the core of this work. The missionaries examined include Matthew Graves of New London, Connecticut, John Beach of Newtown, Connecticut, Henry Caner of Boston, Massachusetts, Jacob Bailey of Pownalboro, Massachusetts, Jeremiah Leaming of Norwalk, Connecticut, Roger Viets of Simsbury, Connecticut, and Edward Bass of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Unlike The chief resources used to explore the lives and ministries of these men were their correspondence with London and each other as well as their sermons, published and unpublished. Materials available at the Diocesan Archives of the Episcopal Church in Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts were also extremely helpful in fashioning the conclusions of this study.

The thesis of this study is that the SPG missionaries stationed in New England during the eighteenth century were significantly "Americanizing" this most British of institutions, the Anglican Church. The fact that the number of missionaries who were actually born in North America increased throughout the eighteenth century helps to explain this phenomenon. Many of these men were ex-Congregational pastors who converted due to doubts about the validity of their non-episcopal ordination. These men, either intentionally, or subconsciously, transferred elements of their American Congregationalism to the American Episcopal Church they were planting in New England. While other studies have developed this argument to some degree, none have examined the process in the form of a "case study" using the lives of certain missionaries. This dissertation also provides a much needed social history of the experience of Anglican missionaries in colonial America.

Recommended Citation

Gates, Benton Earl, ""'Anglican frontiersmen' : the lives and ministries of missionaries serving the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in eighteenth century New England". " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1997.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/9498