Alexander Viets Griswold (April 22, 1766 – February 15, 1843) was the 5th Presiding Bishop of the

Episcopal Church in the United States The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

from 1836 until 1843. He was also the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, which included all of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

with the exception of the

Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut (also known as The Episcopal Church in Connecticut) is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the entire state of Connecticut. It is one of the nine original dioceses ...

. Griswold was an evangelical Episcopalian.

Biography

Born in Simsbury, Connecticut, Alexander Viets Griswold was the son of Elisha Griswold and Eunice Viets. Griswold died in Boston, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Mitchelson on 6 May 1785 or 1786 at Scotland (now Bloomfield), Connecticut. They had 12 children. His sister was the painter

Eunice Pinney Eunice Griswold Holcombe Pinney (February 9, 1770 – 1849) was an American folk artist active in the towns of Windsor and Simsbury, Connecticut. According to art historian Jean Lipman, a specialist in American folk painting, Pinney and her cont ...

. Griswold received the degree of

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

from

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

in 1810, from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

in 1811, and from Harvard in 1812. Griswold was ordained deacon on June 7, 1795, and priest on October 1, 1795. Griswold served three small churches in Litchfield County and also taught school. Griswold was chosen rector of St. Michael's Church,

Bristol, Rhode Island Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England. The population of ...

, in 1804. He was elected bishop and consecrated on May 29, 1811. As the eldest serving bishop, he also served as the Episcopal Church's fifth Presiding Bishop from July 17, 1836, until his death. Griswold also served as Chancellor of Brown University from 1815 to 1828. He was a cousin of both

Frank Griswold Frank Tracy Griswold III (born September 18, 1937) is a retired American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Early life and education Griswold was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was educated at St. Paul's Sc ...

and Sheldon M. Griswold, both Episcopal bishops. When he died in 1843, he was interred in Trinity Church on Summer Street in Boston. In 1876, the bodies of Griswald and his family were removed to the churchyard outside St. Paul's Church, in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Works

Griswold wrote the hymn ''Holy Father, great Creator''. He also published ''Discourses on the Most Important Doctrines and Duties of the Christian Religion'' (1830); ''The Reformation and the Apostolic Office'' (1843); and ''Remarks on Social Prayer Meetings'' (1858). His memoirs were published by Dr. J. S. Stone. Some of his papers and a lock of his hair are stored in the University Library,

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

Honors

The former Griswold College in Davenport, Iowa, was named in honor of Griswold.

References

External links

Documents by Alexander Viets Griswold
from Project Canterbury
Memoior of the Life of Alexander Viets Griswold at Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griswold, Alexander Viets 1766 births 1843 deaths Harvard University alumni Brown University alumni Princeton University alumni Presiding Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Episcopal bishops of Massachusetts 19th-century Anglican bishops in the United States Chancellors of Brown University Evangelical Anglican bishops Burials at Old Village Cemetery People from Simsbury, Connecticut Episcopal bishops of Rhode Island 18th-century Anglican theologians 19th-century Anglican theologians Burials in Dedham, Massachusetts

Biography

Works

Honors

See also

References

Further reading

External links