Charles Inglis (1734-1816)

First Colonial Bishop of the Church of England

The establishment of the Bishopric of Nova Scotia had been resolved on in 1784; and Dr. Chandler, who before the breaking out of the Revolution was Rector of Elizabethtown in New Jersey, was nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he had become favourably known during his residence in England, as the first colonial bishop; but owing to ill-health Dr. Chandler was obliged to decline the offer.   The Archbishop wrote to him, expressing his appreciation of his character, and his sympathy with him in his affliction; he also asked him to recommend to him a suitable person to occupy the position which he was obliged to decline.

The result was that Dr. Charles Inglis, who had been Rector of Trinity Church, New York, during the progress of the Revolutionary War, was chosen, and was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia, at Lambeth, on Sunday the 12th of August, 1787, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Rochester and Chester.   He arrived at Halifax on the 16th of October, 1787, the first Colonial Bishop of the Church of England.

Dr. Inglis was the third son of the Rev. Archibald Inglis, of Glen and Kilcarrin, Ireland, where he was born in 1734.   His father, grandfather, and great grandfather had all been clergymen.   His father had a limited income, and a large family; and so the future bishop, without any idea as yet of the high office to which he was to be called, came to America while still young, and engaged for some time in school-teaching.   Afterwards, when he determined to devote himself to the sacred ministry, he had, like all young men of that period who were seeking Holy Orders, to return to England for examination and ordination.   He was first appointed missionary at Dover, in the province of Delaware, and had the usual experience of backwoods missionaries in the extent and roughness of the territory in which he was appointed to labour.   After six years toil in this hard field, he was appointed Assistant-Rector of Trinity Church, New York, in 1765, and in 1777 he was appointed Rector of this same church; while in 1787, as has been already stated, he was appointed Bishop of Nova Scotia.   His Diocese embraced the whole of Nova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Newfoundland, and Bermuda; or in other words, he was made Bishop of the whole of British North America.   He had at first only ten clergy in Nova Scotia, six in New Brunswick, and six in the rest of his Diocese to carry on the work in this vast territory.   He worked diligently in the discharge of the duties of his office, and the work grew under his administration.   He no doubt confined his labours for the most part to Nova Scotia, where the principal settlements were made at first.   These settlements were generally confined, both in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to the coast and river-banks.   Farm settlements were gradually extended inland, as new bands of emigrants from the old world or exiles from the United States arrived.   The difficulty of supplying these ever-expanding settlements with the ministrations of religion was very great, and the work of supervision and direction was constantly increasing.

Bishop Inglis did not reach his Diocese after his consecration till the close of the navigation in 1787, and yet in the summer of 1792 he made his second visitation of New Brunswick.   He was a man of cheery, hopeful disposition, and his report on the condition of the Church is altogether encouraging.   The diligent and exemplary conduct of the missionaries had won, he tells us, the respect and confidence of the people.   As a result, their congregations were flourishing, their communicants were increasing, churches were being built, and constant applications for the appointment of missionaries in new districts were being received.   The Bishop adjusted many difficulties in connection with the land grants that had been made to the Church, and settled the trusts of parishes and missions during this journey.   He was ably sustained by Governor Carleton, who was a devout man, and did all he could, by example and precept, to promote the interests of religion.   Four new churches were consecrated, and 777 persons confirmed by the Bishop during this visitation of the Province of New Brunswick.   In 1798 we find the Bishop again at Fredericton; while there he visited a school that had been established for black people, under the directions of the Rector, Rev. Mr. Pigeon.   The Bishop obtained from the Association of Dr. Bray an allowance of ten shillings a year towards the education of each black child.   There is no record of any visit ever having been paid by Bishop Inglis to Canada, Newfoundland, or Bermuda.   That, however, does not involve such neglect of these remote and almost inaccessible parts of his Diocese as seems at first to be implied.   For in the first place, settlements were not made so early in these provinces as in the more accessible regions of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.   Then it was only the brief space of five years till Bishop Inglis was relieved of the responsibility of the greater part of his vast Diocese, by the formation, in 1793, of the Diocese of Quebec, embracing at first the whole of Canada.

Bishop Inglis died in Halifax on the 24th of Feb., 1816, in the eighty-second year of his age.   He had been fifty-eight years in the sacred ministry, twenty-nine of which had elapsed since his consecration to the Episcopate.   His son John became third Bishop of Nova Scotia, and his eldest daughter the wife of Chief Justice Halliburton, the author of the widely known 'Sam Slick'.