Thomas Church Brownell (October 19, 1779 – January 13, 1865) was founder of
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
, and
Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church from 1852 to 1865.
Biography
Brownell was born in
Westport, Massachusetts
Westport (Massachusett: ) is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,339 at the 2020 census.
The village of North Westport lies in the town. Other named areas of the town are "Westport Point," which has a do ...
on October 19, 1779. He was a descendant on his mother's side from
Colonel Benjamin Church, an early settler in
Little Compton, Rhode Island
Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The pop ...
and the father of
American ranging. He studied at
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
,
Schenectady
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
, New York, receiving his degree in 1804.
Brownell was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood by Bishop
John Henry Hobart
John Henry Hobart (September 14, 1775 – September 12, 1830) was the third Episcopal bishop of New York (1816–1830). He vigorously promoted the extension of the Episcopal Church in upstate New York, as well as founded both the General Th ...
. He was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut in
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
on October 27, 1819. Brownell's extensive writings include diocesan charges, liturgical material, scriptural commentaries and other works. He founded Washington College (now known as
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
), Hartford as part of the episcopal churches goal of educating its young men the college would serve as the churches seminary. Brownell served as its first president for nearly a decade.
Brownell served as
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church from 1852 until his death, succeeding
Philander Chase
Philander Chase (December 14, 1775 – September 20, 1852) was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, and pioneer of the United States western frontier, especially in Ohio and Illinois.
Early life and family
Born in Cornish, New Hampshire to o ...
.
Brownell was buried at
Cedar Hill Cemetery, next to
Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...
and
Elizabeth Colt.
Brownell had presided over their wedding in 1856.
American Colonization Society
The
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...
would add a chapter in Connecticut when the Connecticut Colonization Society was founded in May of 1827. Rev. Brownell is voted as a manager of the chapter, which is a board of director position. The CCS would work to raise monies for the immigration of Black Americans to a colony in
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
. This would solve the issue of slavery that America had. By educating
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
so that they can go to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
as
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
and bring the knowledge of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
to them. By the start of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
the
Colonization Societies would diminish in power and influence. Between 1821 and 1867 10,000 Black Americans would immigrate to Liberia. In 1847 the colony would declare their independence from the American Colonization Society this led to the society declining in popularity and in 1964 they would officially dissolve.
Statue
Brownell's son-in-law Gordon Burnham commissioned artist
Chauncey Ives to design a larger-than-life bronze statue of Brownell to be placed at Brownell's grave in Cedar Hill Cemetery. It was cast in 1869 by the foundry of
Ferdinand von Miller
Ferdinand von Miller (18 October 1813 – 11 February 1887) was a German artisan who is noted for his furtherance of bronze founding.
Biography
Von Miller was born in Fürstenfeldbruck.
After a sojourn at the academy in Munich and a preliminar ...
of Munich. Burnham decided to donate the statue to Trinity College instead. The statue was first erected November 11, 1869, overlooking
Bushnell Park
Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the oldest publicly funded park in the United States. It was conceived by the Reverend Horace Bushnell in the mid-1850s at a time when the need for open public spaces was just starting to be recognized. T ...
, at the original site of the college. It was moved in 1878 to the main quadrangle of the new Trinity Campus.
References
Further reading
* ''A Sketch-book of the American Episcopate'', by Hermon Griswold Batterson
* ''The Episcopate in America'', by
William Stevens Perry
William Stevens Perry (January 22, 1832 – May 13, 1898) was a 19th-century bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America and an educator. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Iowa from 1876 to 1898.
Bio ...
External links
Documents by Brownellfrom
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...
Cedar Hill Cemetery page on Brownell*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownell, Thomas Church
1779 births
1865 deaths
19th-century Anglican bishops in the United States
Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut)
Episcopal Church in Connecticut
People from Westport, Massachusetts
Presiding Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Religious leaders from Hartford, Connecticut
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Union College (New York) alumni
Episcopal bishops of Connecticut
18th-century Anglican theologians
19th-century Anglican theologians