Christopher Edwards Gadsden

Christopher Edwards Gadsden (November 25, 1785 – June 24, 1852) was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina.

The Right Reverend Christopher Edwards Gadsden D.D.
Bishop of South Carolina
Portrait of Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden by Charles Fraser (1819)
Church	Episcopal Church
Diocese	South Carolina
Elected	January 1840
In office	1840–1852
Predecessor	Nathaniel Bowen
Successor	Thomas F. Davis
Orders
Ordination	April 14, 1810 by James Madison
Consecration	June 21, 1840 by Alexander Viets Griswold
Personal details
Born	November 17, 1785 Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Died	June 24, 1852 (aged 66) Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Buried	St. Philip's Episcopal Church (Charleston, South Carolina)
Nationality	American
Denomination	Anglican
Parents	Philip Gadsden & Catherine Edwards
Spouse	Eliza Allston Bowman (m. 1816; d. 1826) Jane Dewes (m. 1830)
Children	8

Early life

Gadsden was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1785, the son of Phillip Gadsden and his wife, Catherine Edwards.[1] He was a grandson of Christopher Gadsden, the South Carolina Revolutionary leader.[1] As a youth, he attended both the Episcopal Church of his father and his mother's Congregational Church.[1]

Beginning in his junior year, Gadsden attended Yale University, graduating in 1804.[2] He was ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1807 by Bishop Moore, and in 1810 was ordained priest by Bishop Madison.[2]

Career

The Rt. Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden

Soon thereafter, he became rector of St. John's Church in Berkeley County, South Carolina.[3] In 1814, Gadsden became rector of St. Philip's Church in Charleston, the oldest congregation in the diocese.[2] He received a doctorate of divinity the following year from South Carolina College.[2]

In 1840, after the death of Bishop Bowen, a dispute arose in the diocese over who would succeed him. Gadsden was elected, and was consecrated bishop in Trinity Church in Boston.[4] Gadsden was the 35th bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Alexander Viets Griswold, George Washington Doane, and Samuel Allen McCoskry. Gadsden was active in expanding the membership of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, usually visiting each congregation once a year. In 1852, at the diocese convention, he announced that ill health would prevent him from continuing his ministry, and he died shortly thereafter, in June of that year.[4]

Personal life

He married Eliza Bowman in 1816.[5] She died in 1826, and Gadsden remarried in 1830 to Jane Dewees, the youngest daughter of William Dewees.[5] He had no children by his first marriage, but had eight with his second wife.[5]

Notes

1. Sprague, 510
2. Sprague, 511
3. Dexter, 656
4. Sprague, 512
5. Sprague, 513

References

• Dexter, Franklin Bowditch (1911). Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History: With Annals of the College History. H. Holt and Company.
• Sprague, William B. (2006). Annals of the American Pulpit Or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations (Vol. 5: Episcopalian, Part Two). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4286-4505-5.

External links

• Web site of the Episcopal Church
• Web site of the Diocese of South Carolina