Provost, Samuel (1766-1787)

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Adm. Fell.-Com. (age 20) at PETERHOUSE, Nov. 11, 1761. Of Middlesex. [S. of John (and Eve Rutgers). B. Feb. 26, 1741-2, in New York City. Graduated (1st Class) at King's College, Colombia Univ., 1758.] ' Matric. Lent, 1765; B.A. 1767, as Provoost. Proficient in German, French, Hebrew and Latin, and while at Cambridge made a poetical version of Tasso. Also a good botanist. Ord. deacon (London) Feb. 25, 1766; priest, Mar. 25, 1766. Returned to America. Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New York, but his sympathy ‘as an ardent Whig,’ caused embitterment among the Loyalist members of the parish, and he resigned, 1771. Retired to East Camp, Dutchess County, where he remained in straitened circumstances until 1784. Married, June 8, 1766, Maria, dau. of Thomas Bousfield, of Lakelands, Cork, and had issue. Elected Chaplain of the New York State Convention, Rector of St Michael's Church, Charleston, South Carolina, and R. of King's Chapel, Boston, but refused all three appointments. Chaplain of St Paul's and St George's Chapels of Trinity Parish, New York, 1784-86. Chaplain of the Continental Congress, 1785. Elected the first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, 1786, and consecrated in Lambeth Palace, 1787. Conducted the service held in St Paul's Chapel, Apr. 30, 1789, following Washington's inauguration, which was attended by the President and the leading officials of the new Government. ‘On this occasion he read prayers from the Proposed Book, no prayer-book having yet been officially adopted by the Episcopal Church.’ Owing to the death of his wife and the suicide of his youngest son, his health was badly impaired, but the House of Bishops refused to accept his resignation. Died Sept. 6, 1815; buried in the family vault in Trinity churchyard: (T. A. Walker, 322; Dict. of American Biography, XV. 249 (Provoost).)

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