SEABURY

It’s notable that Cheshire Academy’s founding father, Bishop Samuel Seabury, was a British loyalist whose plan to build an Episcopal Academy in Connecticut was financially successful due to the support of colonists who fought against Britain in the Revolutionary War.

Seabury was so notorious for his outspoken loyalty to Britain that he was jailed for his actions against the colonists. The offense was a steady stream of pamphlets Seabury wrote about the dangers of supporting the revolution. Written anonymously by “A.W. Farmer,” Seabury’s publications protested the actions of the First Continental Congress.

After several unsuccessful attempts by colonist soldiers to capture Seabury, he was eventually subdued in 1775 by a militia in Westchester, New York and brought 70 miles to New Haven. The soldiers paraded him through town as a prisoner of war, and, as he was brought to the jail, cannons were fired to herald Seabury’s imprisonment.

When he was released six weeks later, Seabury and his family took refuge with British troops in New York. While in hiding, he drew maps of the area to help British army scouts on their reconnaissance missions. Soon after, Seabury was appointed chaplain of the British regiment and received a royal pension for the rest of his life.

By 1784 Seabury had weathered the revolution and returned as the rector of St. Peter’s Church in Westchester, according to a book called, “Samuel Seabury, The First American Bishop,” by Shirley Carter Hughson. In March of that year, the book states, he and about 10 Episcopal priests met in Woodbury, Connecticut to plan how to approach the Church of England to request an ordination for a bishop to serve in the United States.

Seabury was chosen by the local clergy to travel to London for what Hughson considered, “more trial than honor,” to secure a consecration from one of the leading bishops of England. After 16 months of effort and no results, Seabury turned to the Scottish church. He was ordained in Aberdeen in November 1784.

His return to the United States was announced in New York newspapers when Seabury made a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 23, 1785. “The Right Reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury, Bishop of the state of Connecticut (arrived); from whence he would in a very short time embark for New London.”

In a nearly parallel time frame to Seabury’s rise in the church hierarchy, the founding of an Episcopal Academy in Connecticut was taking shape. Residents in Cheshire, Wallingford, and Stratford all expressed interest in having the state’s first Episcopal school located in their town. Cheshire was selected, in no small part, due to the promise of £702 (or $1,077 in U.S. dollars) from supporters to pay for about an acre of land and a building. In today’s dollars it would equal about $23,000.

Half of the 30 supporters who helped finance the venture fought against the British and are buried at Cheshire’s Hillside Cemetery, about a block away from the Academy.

A book written in 1912 by members of the Lady Fenwick Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution notes that the proprietors made financial sacrifices to support the school. “Hearing of her husband’s subscription (payment),” the book states, “the wife of one of these proprietors said she thought he ought to buy some windows for his house first.”

Seabury died in 1796, after serving as bishop for 11 years. He did not live to witness the laying of the first cornerstone for Bowden Hall which is named for the school’s first principal, Rev. John Bowden, who served from 1796 to 1802.

The Washington National Cathedral in the District of Columbia holds an annual event each November called the “Kirking of the Tartans,” to honor the anniversary of Seabury’s ordination and to observe St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Scotland.

On the 150th anniversary of Seabury’s consecration in 1934, bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland gathered at St. Andrews Cathedral in Aberdeen to honor the first American bishop. The celebration recognized, “Seabury’s faith and courage in introducing Episcopacy to the United States,” according to “The Charlotte Observer.”

CLERICAL RETORT

During the winter of 1785, when Bishop Seabury and his clergy were meeting to discuss the formation of an Episcopal Academy in Connecticut, a guest was late arriving. According to the “Clerical Anecdotes” column in an 1858 issue of the “Albany Journal,” the clergyman, cold from his travels, approached a table to pour a glass of wine to warm him. The latecomer said to Seabury, “… permit me to avail myself of the advice of St. Paul to Timothy, and take a little wine …” In response, the bishop said, “Brother, you don’t read the passage as I do. I read it as a little wine, as little as you please.”