Abraham Jarvis

The Right Reverend

Abraham Jarvis
Bishop of Connecticut
Church Episcopal Church
Diocese Connecticut
In office 1797–1813
Predecessor Samuel Seabury
Successor Thomas Church Brownell
Orders
Ordination February 19, 1764
by Charles Lyttelton
Consecration October 18, 1797
by William White
Personal details
Born May 5, 1739
Died May 3, 1813 (aged 73)
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Buried Trinity Church on the Green
Nationality American
Denomination Anglican
Parents Samuel Jarvis & Naomi Brush
Spouse Ann Farmer (1766–1801)
Lucy Lewis (1806–1813)
Signature Abraham Jarvis's signature

Abraham Jarvis (May 5, 1739 – May 3, 1813) was the second American Episcopal bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and eighth in succession of bishops in the Episcopal Church. He was a high churchman and a loyalist to the crown.

Biography

Jarvis was born in Norwalk, Connecticut and graduated from Yale College in 1761. He studied under the Rev. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, Elizabeth, N.J. He was ordained deacon on February 5, 1764, and priest on February 19, 1764, by the Church of England. He served as rector of Christ Church, Middletown, Connecticut, from 1764 to 1799.

Jarvis served as a chaplain to imprisoned Loyalist sympathizers during the American Revolution. He presided at a convention in New Haven, Connecticut, of clergy of Connecticut on July 23, 1776, which decided to suspend worship in the colony for fear of the British. He was one of ten Episcopal priests who met in Woodbury, Connecticut, on March 25, 1783, and elected Samuel Seabury as the first bishop of the Episcopal Church, serving as secretary of the meeting. Jarvis was consecrated second bishop of Connecticut on October 18, 1797. Completing his service in Middletown in 1799, he then served in Cheshire until 1803 and finally in New Haven, where he died. His remains are interred under the high altar at Trinity Church on the Green.

Jarvis Hall, the oldest dormitory at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, is named after Abraham Jarvis.

Consecrators

Publications

  • "Sermon on the Death of Bishop Seabury", 1796

See also