There are 11 Church of England clergymen in the colony of New Jersey just before the Revolution.
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More than 100 Revolutionary battles occur in New Jersey. On December 25, 1776, Washington made his famous surprise crossing, defeating the British forces in the Battle of Trenton. It changed the course of the war.
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The state seal is born. Take three plows, place in the middle. Top with a horse head, for speed and strength. Add images of Liberty and Ceres, goddess of grain. Now finish with “Liberty and Prosperity” as the motto. Rah! |
Four of the pre-war 11 Church of England clergyman remain in the Diocese of New Jersey. There are 20 congregations, in varying states of health. The church is considered to be “baggage left behind by the British.” |
A proto-convention is held in New Brunswick, at Christ Church — since there is no bishop, there is no diocese as such, so there cannot be a diocesan convention. The meeting was “The Church in the State of New Jersey.” |
Trinity Church, Swedesboro, changes from being Swedish Lutheran to being Anglican. It still is.
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The church in New Jersey elects Uzal Ogden, rector of Trinity, Newark, as bishop, but in both 1799 and 1801 General Convention refused to ratify his election, citing, for the record, voting skullduggery. Ogden later became a Presbyterian.
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Bishop William White holds the first-ever confirmation at Trinity Church, Swedesboro, confirming 251. It was “a sensation.” |
| Number crunching: At this time, there are nine Episcopal clergymen, 27 congregations, and 9,000 parishioners. | On 30 August, John Croes, rector of Christ Church, New Brunswick, is elected the first bishop of New Jersey. There are only 27 organized congregations, with about 750 communicants total — 25 percent of whom live in Swedesboro. |
George W. Doane, rector of Trinity Church, Boston, is elected second bishop. He is 33 years old. His friends wonder at his leaving one of the wealthiest parishes for one of the poorest dioceses. They worry he will be paid only “in tomatoes.” |
Bishop Doane settles in Burlington, becoming rector of St Mary’s as well as bishop. It is essentially the only salary he receives.
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| At General Convention, Bishop Doane’s sermon claims that every baptized person is a member of the church’s missionary society. That becomes enshrined in the formal title of the ECUSA: The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS). | St Mary’s Hall in Burlington is founded, the first private preparatory school for girls in the Episcopal Church. It is still a well-regarded prep school today, now open to both girls and boys. |
Bishop Doane votes to admit Alexander Crummell, an African-American, to General Theological Seminary. He is the only bishop on the GTS board so to do. |
The Chapel of the Holy Innocents at St Mary’s Hall, by John Notman, is “one of the most significant churches, architecturally, in the country...the first to use measured drawings of a specific English church as the basis for its plan.” It is still in use today. |
| St Mary’s New Church, Burlington, designed by Richard Upjohn, is consecrated. It is the first cruciform church in the United States. | A complete dinosaur skeleton is discovered in Haddonfield, the evidence needed to prove that dinosaurs really did exist. |
Bishop Doane dies at 59. The 18 clergymen at the beginning of his episcopate now total 98; the 27 parishes and missions have become 85. Communicants per capita in the state increase from 1 in 385 (1832) to 1 in 134 (1859). |
W. H. Odenheimer is elected third bishop. Milo Mahan, a General Seminary faculty member, is the lead candidate but slips from first place when he becomes rattled, as a bat flies about in the church during his sermon to convention. |
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