PROVOOST, pro-'''. SAMUEL (1742-1815). First bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York. He was born in New Yo•k City, of Huguenot descent, and was educated at King's now Columbia) College. In England he con tinued his studies at St. Peter's College. Cam bridge, and was ordained priest in 1766. He returned to New York and became an assistant minister of Trinity parish, a post he retained until 1774, when he withdrew, it is alleged, on account of holding views regarding the approach ing struggle with the mother country at variance with those entertained by the majority of the parishioners. He declined to serve as dele gate to the Continental Congress, though his patriotic impulses led him to join his neighbors in their pursuit of the British after the burning of the town of Esopus. lle did not resume the active ministry until the close of the war, when, in 1784, he became rector of Trinity Church, New York, and shortly thereafter a member of the Board of Regents of the University. The follow
ing year he became chaplain of the Continental Congress, then meeting in New York. in 1786 he was elected first Bishop of New York at the Diocesan Convention. and in company with Will iam White, Bishop-elect of Pennsylvania, sailed for England. where they were consecrated at Lambeth by the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishops of Bath and Wells and Peterborough. As a preacher Bishop l'rovoost was learned and polished, but without warmth and fervor. In 1500 he resigned the rectorship of Trinity and the following year sought to relin quish his episcopal office, but the House of Bishops, declining to accept his resignation, ap pointed instead an assistant bishop. Consult: The Centennial History of the Protestant Episco pal Church in the Diocese of New York, 1785 /88.5, edited by .James Grant Wilson (New York, 1856) ; and The History of the American Episco pal Church. 1587-1883, by William Stevens Perry .(Boston, 1855).