Dictionary.net

This is the name of what may be called the Church of England in America. Its history begins with the settlement at Jamestown (1607), among whose settlers was a clergyman, Rev. R. Hunt, who labored zealously in the colony throughout his life. The clergy were supported by grants from the Legislature, and afterward by tithes, and the interests of the church were carefully fostered by the Virginia Company and by the successive royal governors. William and Mary College was chartered in 1692 in order to educate the clergy for the colonial churches. By 1701 Maryland for the most part had become Episcopal and attempts were soon made to establish the church in the more southern colonies, but with poor success. In New York City Trinity Church was founded 1696, and generally throughout the Middle States the church was spread through the agency of the "Society for Propagating the Gospel," chartered 1701. By the time of the Revolution there had been established in New England thirty-six churches. This war greatly lessened the influence of the church, which naturally was English in sympathy, but in 1785 the first general convention was held and remodeled the organization to suit the new political condition. Two years later American bishops were consecrated in London (Seabury in Scotland in 1784), and thus the formal organization of the American church was completed. During the next twenty years the church lost almost all its power through dissension and the withdrawal of State aid, but from that time on a steady growth has been manifest, and the church in 1890 numbered 532,000 communicants.