Arthur Sweatman was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Anglican bishop and the third Primate

Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada is elected by the General Synod of the Church from among a list of five bishops nominated by the House of Bishops...

 of the Anglican Church of Canada

Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...

.

Early life

Sweatman was born on 19 November 1834 in London, England to parents John and Anne. His education began in two London private schools, followed by education at University College School

University College School

University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...

. In 1859, Sweatman received a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree from Christ's College

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

, Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 and was ordained as a deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

 the same year. Sweatman soon distinguished himself as a pioneer in the movement for boys' clubs, beginning with the founding of the Islington Youths' Institute in 1860. In 1865, whilst curate of St Stephen's in Canonbury

Canonbury

Canonbury is a residential district in the London Borough of Islington in the north of London. It is roughly in the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road....

, he impressed the visiting headmaster of Huron College, Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 with his work with youths. The visiting headmaster convinced Sweatman to become the first headmaster of the London Collegiate Institute in Huron, serving there until 1871. Until 1872, he was the mathematics master at Upper Canada College

Upper Canada College

Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...

, leaving there to become the rector of Grace Church in Brantford until 1874. From 1874 to 1876, Sweatman again served as the principal of the London Collegiate Institute, which had been renamed Hellmuth Boys’ College. From 1876 to 1879, he was the priest in charge of New St Paul's, Woodstock.

Bishop of Toronto

On February 3, 1879, the second bishop of the Diocese of Toronto

Anglican Diocese of Toronto

The Diocese of Toronto is an administrative division of the Anglican Church of Canada covering the central part of southern Ontario. It has the most members of any Anglican diocese in Canada. It is also one of the biggest Anglican dioceses in the Americas in terms of numbers of parishioners, clergy...

, Alexander Bethune, died. Later that month, the synod

Synod

A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

 met to elect a new bishop. Most of the clergy were inclined to vote for George Whitaker

George Whitaker (educator)

George Whitaker was an English-Canadian clergyman and educator.-Early life:Born into a Baptist farming family in Bratton, Wiltshire, England, he received his early education at Frome Grammar School and Charterhouse School. He matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1829 and graduated BA in...

, the provost of the University of Trinity College

University of Trinity College

The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...

. However, the lay

Laity

In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...

 synod delegates were opposed to the clergy candidate and proposed a Reverend Dr Sullivan as their candidate, who was then on his way from Chicago to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 to take up the rectory there. Neither candidate received the necessary number of votes to become the bishop. Sweatman was elected as a compromise between the clergymen and laymen of the synod after five days of balloting.

On May 1, 1879, the Bishop of Quebec

Bishop of Quebec

The title Bishop of Quebec refers to more than one individual:* The Anglican Bishop of Quebec* The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Quebec- See also :* Bishop of Calgary * Bishop of Edmonton...

 consecrated Sweatman in St. James' Cathedral, Toronto. On June 10 of the same year, Sweatman made his views clear to the first synod under his presidency. His views were not radical, but were of moderation. He immediately set to work, transforming a debt-ridden diocese into a financially stable one. Sweatman also worked towards a grand new cathedral for Toronto. In 1885, the trustees of the land reserved for the future cathedral donated $2,000 towards his cause, possibly to enhance the property value of the site. Before the end of the year, a building had been erected on the site to house the bishop and his family. Although St. Alban's Cathedral was eventually completed to some extent, its construction incurred heavy debts for the diocese. This project was viewed by Sweatman as one of his most disappointing ventures.

Later life

In 1905, Sweatman suffered a seizure, and in 1907 became the Archbishop of Toronto

Anglican Diocese of Toronto

The Diocese of Toronto is an administrative division of the Anglican Church of Canada covering the central part of southern Ontario. It has the most members of any Anglican diocese in Canada. It is also one of the biggest Anglican dioceses in the Americas in terms of numbers of parishioners, clergy...

. The same year, he was elected the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada is elected by the General Synod of the Church from among a list of five bishops nominated by the House of Bishops...

, the third since the position's creation. Two years later, on January 24, 1909, Sweatman died of bronchial pneumonia.