Benjamin Bosworth Smith (1784-1884) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Protestant Episcopal bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

. He was born at Bristol

Bristol, Rhode Island

Bristol is a town in and the historic county seat of Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,954 at the 2010 census. Bristol, a deepwater seaport, is named after Bristol, England....

, R. I.

Rhode Island

The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

, and graduated at Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 in 1816. The following year he was ordained, beginning his ministry at Marblehead, Mass.

Marblehead, Massachusetts

Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...

  He held several pastoral charges and was for a time editor of the Episcopal Recorder at Philadelphia. His last rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

ship, in Lexington, Ky.

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

, he held until 1837, though in 1832 he had become Bishop of the diocese. While he was presiding Bishop (from 1868), a separatist movement , which became the Reformed Episcopal Church

Reformed Episcopal Church

The Reformed Episcopal Church is an Anglican church in the United States and Canada and a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America...

, was organized under the leadership of Bishop Smith's own assistant bishop, George David Cummins

George David Cummins

George David Cummins was an American bishop and founder of the Reformed Episcopal Church.-Life and career:George David Cummins was born in Delaware on 11 December 1822. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1841, and entered the Methodist ministry.In 1845 Cummins took orders in the Protestant...

. He published Saturday Evening (1876) and Apostolic Succession (1877).

External links

• Documents by and about B.B. Smith from Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999, and is hosted by the non-profit Society of Archbishop Justus...
  
  
• The Life and Ministry of Benjamin Bosworth Smith, First Bishop of Kentucky: A Memorial Discourse delivered before the Fifty-sixth Annual Council of the Diocese of Kentucky, on the 24th Day of September, A.D., 1884, in Christ Church, Louisville, by Alfred Lee (1884)