Samuel Seabury, Jr.

Samuel Seabury, Jr. (1729-1796) was the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. Seabury Hall on the old campus and the current Seabury Hall are named after him.

Portrait of Samuel Seabury by Ralph Earl, ca. 1785. Photo from National Portrait Gallery

Seabury was born in Groton, Connecticut on November 30, 1729 to a slaveholding family; his father, also Samuel Seabury (1706-1764), was a convert to the Anglican Church from Congregationalism, and wrote in his 1752 will that he would leave “to his wife Elizabeth [his] mullato man named 'Newport,' and [his] riding chair horse.” At this time, slavery in Connecticut was legal and common, with, on average, one to six slaves in both “middling and affluent” households. Unlike Southern plantations, enslaved people in Connecticut were in daily contact with their owners and families, “may have eaten at the same table, and perhaps, relaxed at days end by the hearthside,” though separate quarters and sleeping areas was common. ¹⁾

Seabury attended Yale College and graduated in 1748, after which he studied medicine and theology under his father while serving as catechist for a Huntington, New York Episcopal parish. He completed his medical education at Edinburgh University between 1752 and 1753, and was ordained as deacon on December 21, 1753, then priest on December 23. According to early biographer Eben Beardsley, “It was not a very uncommon thing for clergymen in America at that period to acquire a certain degree of medical science as a means of accomplishing good.” Seabury returned to the United States having been recommended to a congregation at New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he arrived on May 25, 1754.

Seabury married Mary Hicks (d.1780) on October 12, 1756 and fathered six children, three daughters and three sons. Mary's father, Edward, was from Philadelphia and according to Seabury, “the Character of an opulent merchant,” who “lived in a fashionable and genteel manner.” Mary, thus, was brought up in a comfortable and even luxurious home, and her father “presented her with the Negro slave who had been her attendant” two weeks before her wedding day. At the time of their marriage, Edward Hicks promised Seabury £400 to purchase a farm; eventually, Edward, Seabury, and Seabury's brothers-in-law would quarrel over money and property, with Edward Hicks demanding £80 in return for the enslaved woman he had gifted Mary.

From 1757 to 1766, Seabury served as the missionary and leader of several parishes at Jamaica (now Queens, New York City), Newtown, and Flushing. Unfortunately, Seabury's time leading these churches did not end successfully. One of Seabury's parishioners, John Aspinwall, sought Seabury's blessing to bring Yale graduate Auger Treadwell to Flushing as a lay reader. Treadwell helped grow the Flushing parish to become the largest of Seabury's three, but soon his success was to Seabury's detriment and humiliation as his parishes turned to Treadwell as potential new leader. Eventually, Treadwell was given a mission to Trenton, New Jersey, but returned to preach and baptize without Seabury's permission in Jamaica. Seabury blamed Aspinwall for the entire ordeal and took his grievances to the newspaper, where the two exchanged public, heated editorials.

Seabury resigned from the Jamaica parish in December of 1766, leaving behind “a trail of disarray and dissent” and was induced as rector of Westchester, New York on March 1, 1767, which became his most successful, though Seabury did state that “I find it difficult to convince people that religion is a matter of importance. They seem to treat it as a thing unworthy of their attention.” His years in Jamaica had also impacted his personality: “he had become “humorless and opinionated,” with “an intensity suggesting that the cleric was far from easy to live with.” ²⁾

As tensions grew between England and the American colonies during the leadup to the Revolutionary War, Seabury authored several pamphlets under the name “A.W. [A Westchester] Farmer,” the first of which was published in 1774. These pamphlets expressed nuanced critiques of the Continental Congress and its aims to separate from England.

An excerpt from the December 24, 1774 letter reads:

You have taken some pains to prove what would readily have been granted you–that liberty is a very good thing, and slavery a very bad thing. But then I must think that liberty under a King, Lords and Commons is as good as liberty under a republican Congress: And that slavery under a republican Congress is as bad, at least, as slavery under a King, Lords and Commons: And upon the whole, that liberty under the supreme authority and protection of Great-Britain, is infinitely preferable to slavery under an American Congress. I will also agree with you, “that Americans are intitled to freedom.” I will go further: I will own and acknowledge that not only Americans, but Africans, Europeans, Asiaticks, all men, of all countries and degrees, of all sizes and complexions, have a right to as much freedom as is consistent with the security of civil society: And I hope you will not think me an “enemy to the natural rights of mankind” because I cannot wish them more. We must however remember, that more liberty may, without inconvenience, be allowed to individuals in a small government, than can be admitted of in a large empire.

Seabury continued this letter to say that an independent colony is an oxymoron; a colony by definition is dependent on the mother country. “Legislation is not an inherent right in the colonies,” Seabury stated, and that “the right of colonists to exercise a legislative power, is no natural right. They derive it not from nature, but from the indulgence or grant of the parent state.” In Seabury's view, every government must have a supreme authority “lodged somewhere” and “our own government [is] a mixture of all these kinds, the supreme authority is vested in the King, Nobles and People, i. e. the King, House of Lords, and House of Commons elected by the people.”

Seabury assembled along with over 300 others at White Plains, New York in 1775 and was a signatory on a list of people who protested the Sons of Liberty and Continental Congress: “We, the subscribers, freeholders, and inhabitants of the county of Westchester, having assembled at the White Plains in consequence of certain advertisements, do now declare that we met here to declare our honest abhorrence of all unlawful Congresses and committees, and that we are determined, at the hazard of our lives and properties, to support the King and Constitution ; and that we acknowledge no representatives but the General Assembly, to whose wisdom and integrity we submit the guardian-ship of our rights, liberties, and privileges.”

As a result of his political leanings, Seabury was arrested by “a company of armed men” led by Captain Isaac Sears on the orders of Captain Lothrop on November 22, 1775. It was actually the second attempt to arrest him, the first of which he escaped, along with his friend, Isaac Wilkins. On that November Wednesday, “an armed force from Connecticut invaded the territory of New York, seized him at his school-room, and carried him to New Haven” where he was kept under house arrest at the residence of a “Mrs. Lyman.” During this time, Seabury petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly asking for relief “from the heavy hand of oppression and tyranny” and detailing abuses committed by the armed company, including frightening his daughters with bayonets and damaging items in the home.

During the Revolution, Seabury “evacuated his home in Westchester to seek protection behind British lines in New York City.” ³⁾ In 1777, General William Howe, Commander of the British forces, appointed Seabury as Chaplain to a hospital, and again in 1778 to a Loyalist regiment.

After Britain's surrender to the United States, ten Episcopal clergymen assembled at John Rutgers Marshall's Glebe House” in Woodbury, Connecticut on March 25, 1783 to discuss the future of the Church in the new country. That evening, the group nominated Samuel Seabury as Bishop-elect, despite the fact that “although he was born in Connecticut, Seabury had never served a parish in the state.”

The next step would require consecration from the Church of England, which would not be an easy feat – “Stung by their defeat, the English were in no mood to grant the Americans any concessions. The Church of England was an established arm of the state; as such, its bishops, who were members of the House of Lords, were required to swear loyalty to the sovereign.” However, an American Bishop, as a member of another country would wield no political power: “how could an American ecclesiastical leader, therefore, function as a bishop?” ⁴⁾ However, Seabury, with his history of Loyalist writings, letters of testimonial from friends and colleagues like Abraham Jarvis, influential friends in England and Scotland, and a man “whose character would appeal to the British and who would have enough persistence to surmount the obstacles,” was felt to be the best choice.

Seabury arrived in London on July 7, 1783 to seek consecration in London with high hopes, but soon “realized that the plan was doomed to failure.” Over the course of the next year, Seabury appealed to the Bishop of London, Robert Lowth; the Archbishop of York, William Markham; the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Moore; the Bishop of Oxford, and even former Prime Minister Lord North (who lost or discarded his testimonial letters). Seabury even claimed authorship of the A.W. Farmer letters in order to demonstrate his loyalty to England during the Revolution. The bishops and archbishops “could foresee nothing but problems” in granting Seabury's request.

By August 1784, Seabury realized that he was getting nowhere in England. At the same time, he felt that support in America was faltering, and was just about “at his wit's end.” However, he was also able to pivot quickly –his earlier education in Edinburgh had created connections with the Scottish Episcopal Church. On October 24, Seabury set out for Scotland. Despite some opposition due to his Loyalist history, which some believed made him unfit to serve as bishop in America, Seabury was consecrated on November 14, 1784 in Aberdeen. The validity of his consecration was “hotly debated by churchmen to the south of Connecticut, churchmen who held conflicting convictions about the best way to build an episcopal church in the United States.” ⁵⁾

Beginning in 1785, Seabury also “besides performing the usual duties of a bishop” was rector of St. James Church in New London, Connecticut, and had a parsonage there which was “managed for him by his spinster daughter, Miss Maria, who directed the work of a hired servant and a Negro slave named Nell.” ⁶⁾

Seabury's journal from 1791-1795 details his travels and preaching throughout New England in places like Boston, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and towns across Connecticut. He preached, attended conventions, and visited new churches. Abraham Jarvis, one of the organizers of Connecticut's Episcopal Church (and for whom Jarvis Hall is named) was among Seabury's closest friends and second Bishop of Connecticut.

Cheshire Academy, founded as The Episcopal Academy in 1794, is today a college preparatory boarding and day school. Photo Credit: Cheshire Academy.

Once Seabury became Bishop of Connecticut, it became possible to consider the creation of an Episcopal institution of higher education, and Seabury was happy to plant the seeds for what would one day become Trinity College. In 1788, Seabury wrote to Bishop Abernathy Drummond stating, “We are also endeavoring to establish an academy for the education of our own clergy, etc.; and perhaps if we can raise £1400 or 1500 sterling by subscription in the course of the winter, of which we have good hopes, to set it a-going in the course of the next summer; and flatter ourselves that, by making it a general School for fitting young gentlemen for the various occupations of life, it will support itself.”

Beginning in 1788, a committee was formed to “open and solicit subscriptions,” but fundraising faltered and efforts continued into the 1790s. On June 3, 1794, Seabury wrote in his journal: “Among other things, the subject of an Episcopal Academy was canvassed and measures were directed for opening one at Stratford under the direction of the Rev. Mr. John Bowden.” The discussions continued, and the Academy was established in 1794.

The Academy was ultimately located in Cheshire, and was the first educational institution in this country organized under the auspices of a diocesan convention. It was the desire of the founders to erect it into a college, and the idea was entertained, especially after his death, of giving it the name of the first bishop of Connecticut. But no charter, extending its powers, could be obtained from the Legislature, and it was left as it has been since, to do its good work for the Church as a school where young men are prepared for College or for the active business of life. ⁷⁾

Today, the Cheshire Academy, formerly the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, still operates as a prestigious preparatory school.

Seabury continued to own slaves throughout his life. The 1790 Census for New London lists Samuel Seabury's household as having 11 members, eight of whom are described as “Free White Persons” and three as “Slaves.” He also continued to travel across New England visiting parishes and attending conventions; his final journey took place only several months before his death.

After Samuel Seabury died on February 25, 1796 “at the home of one of his wardens” in New London, Connecticut, an estate inventory done November 28, 1796, by appraisers Jon Starr and Henry Truman itemized an “English Bible” and a “case with two razors,” as well as the values of a 38-year-old Black woman “by the name of Nell,” and a Black girl named Rose, “about nine years old, free by law at 25 years old.”

Samuel Seabury Jr. is a character in the musical Hamilton, played by Thayne Jasperson. In the musical, Seabury, a known rival of Alexander Hamilton, sings a song called “Farmer Refuted,” based upon the A.W. Farmer letters.

Project Canterbury: The Seabury Family

Trinity and Slavery: Samuel Seabury

Enslaved Africans in the Colony of Connecticut (2007) by Peter Hinks.

Samuel Seabury: A Bicentennial Biography (1983) by Anne Rowthorn, pp.30-31, 42-50.

Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Samuel Seabury's Journal from 1791-1795 (1982) by Anne Rowthorn, pp. 1-5, 45-46, 51.

Samuel Seabury, 1729-1796; a study in the High Church tradition (1972) by Bruce E. Steiner, pp. 65-66, 314.

Memoir of Bishop Seabury (1908) by William Jones Seabury.

Life and correspondence of the Right Reverend Samuel Seabury (1881), by Eben Edwards Beardsley, pp. 1-7, 27-42, 336-338, 437-445.

Abstracts of wills on file in the Surrogate's office, city of New York.

United States Census (1790), Samuel Seabury, New London, Connecticut, United States; citing p. 166, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1; FHL microfilm 568,141.

Probate Packet for Samuel Seabury (1797).

Inventory of Rt. Rev. Bishop Samuel Seabury's estate, page listing two enslaved persons (1797).

Letters of a Westchester Farmer (1774-1775) by Samuel Seabury.