12 September 1830 A.D. John Henry Hobart Dies—3rd Bishop of Protestant Episcopal Diocese of NY; Founder of General Seminary, NYC
12 September 1830 A.D. John Henry Hobart Dies—3rd Bishop of
Protestant Episcopal Diocese of NY; Founder of General Seminary, NYC
John H. Hobart
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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 Central and Western New York. He founded the General Theological Seminary in New
York City and Geneva College, later renamed Hobart Free College in 1852 after him, in Geneva, in
the Finger
Lakes area of upstate New York.
Contents
Biography
Early life and family
John Henry Hobart was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sept. 14, 1775; the son of Capt. Enoch and Hannah (Pratt) Hobart. His
grandfather John Hobart had moved from Hingham, Massachusetts to Philadelphia, where he married a Swedish woman and became a member of
the Anglican
Church. His great-grandfather Peter Hobart was a graduate of
the University of Cambridge, England, 1629, and teacher and pastor in Suffolk
County, England; he emigrated to America in
1635.[1]
Education
Captain Hobart died when the future bishop was an infant,
and was buried in the family tomb at Christ Church Burial Ground. At age nine, John was a pupil in the Episcopal Academy. He studied
classics under professor John Andrews, 1785–90, and followed when his mentor became vice-provost of the University of Pennsylvania, which Hobart attended, 1790-91. He transferred to the junior class of the
College of New Jersey (Princeton) and graduated, A.B., 1793, A.M., 1796. Hobart worked as a
tutor at Princeton, 1797–98, while pursuing his studies in theology under the
direction of Bishop William White.
Ministry
Hobart was ordained deacon by Bishop White in Philadelphia on June 3, 1798, and as a priest in 1800.
He then served as pastor of Trinity Church in Oxford and
All Saints in Perkiomen in Pennsylvania, before moving to New Jersey to serve at Christ Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Trinity Church in New York hired Hobart as its assistant minister in 1803. Hobart showed
his zeal for the historic episcopacy, An Apology for Apostolic Order and its
Advocates in 1807, a series of letters to John M. Mason, who, in The
Christians Magazine, of which he was editor, had attacked the Episcopacy in
general and in particular Hobart's collection of Essays on the Subject of
Episcopacy (1806).[2]
In 1811, Hobart was elected assistant bishop of New York,
with the right of succession. The ill-health of Bishop Benjamin Moore led Hobart to effectively run the diocese for several years before
formally succeeding on the latter's death in February 1816. As bishop, Hobart
worked to build up his diocese, attempting to visit every parish annually. He
was able, impetuous, frank, perfectly fearless in controversy, a speaker and
preacher of much eloquence. A supporter of missions to the Oneida
Indians, Hobart helped relocate many of the Oneida
from New York State to Wisconsin.
One of the founders of the General Theological Seminary, Hobart became its professor of Pastoral Theology in 1821, served as its
first dean and governed the seminary as bishop. He opposed the plan of Philander Chase, Bishop of Ohio,
for an Episcopal seminary in that diocese; but when the Ohio seminary was made
directly responsible to the House
of Bishops, Hobart withdrew his opposition.
Bishop Hobart supported the High Church Movement within the Episcopal Church. A predecessor of the Anglo-Catholic Movement deriving from the Oxford
Movement in the 1830s and 40s, the High Church
movement, like the Anglo-Catholic - stressed continuity with the pre-Protestant Reformation church, while at the same time strongly opposed certain Roman Catholic
doctrines. The movement emphasized the Apostolic Succession and Anglican
Covenantal Theology. In contrast to the later Anglo-Catholic movement, Hobart's
High Churchmanship did not have a significant liturgical character. Hobart
emphasized the significance of baptism and apostolic succession, and how the apostolic succession affected
Episcopal ecumenical relationships and ministry with "non-apostolic"
churches. The seminary became a center for the High Church Movement and later
for the Oxford Movement in America. Through General Seminary, Hobart in
particular influenced two future bishops: Benjamin Onderdonk and Jackson
Kemper.
Hobart also opposed the American Bible Society, perhaps part of his strong opposition to dissenting churches. In 1816 he
published a pamphlet to dissuade Episcopalians from joining the new movement,
which he thought the Protestant
Episcopal Church had not the numerical or
the financial strength to control. Instead, in 1818, to counterbalance the Bible Society's influence and especially of Scott's Commentaries, Hobart began to
edit the Family Bible of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He
also delivered episcopal charges to the clergy of Connecticut and
New York entitled The Churchman (1819) and The High Churchman
Vindicated (1826), in which Hobart accepted the label high churchman,
explaining his principles to distinguish them from the corruptions of the Church of Rome and from the Errors of Certain Protestant Sects.
By 1818, Hobart had also become convinced that an
institution of higher education was needed in the western reaches of the state
of New York. Though he had visited many areas as a bishop, he selected the
small village of Geneva on Seneca Lake for his new outpost of learning. The
site for the new Geneva
College was selected in 1820, and the first
building erected in 1822. Geneva College became Hobart Free College, later
renamed Hobart College in 1852 in honor of its founder, and which became Hobart and William Smith
Colleges.
In failing health, Hobart visited Europe from 1823-1825. Upon
his return, he preached a sermon entitled The United States of America
compared with some European Countries, particularly England (published
1826). Hobart so criticized the establishment, state patronage, cabinet
appointment of bishops, low discipline, and the low requirements of theological
education, as to rouse much hostility in England, where he had been highly
praised for two volumes of Sermons on the Principal Events and Truths of
Redemption (1824).
Death and Legacy
Bishop Hobart died at Auburn,
New York, on September 12, 1830, and is buried
at Trinity Churchyard near his beloved General Theological Seminary in Manhattan.[3] The Episcopal Church
remembers Bishop Hobart annually on the anniversary of his death, September 12.[4]
The Church
of the Holy Apostles in Oneida,
Wisconsin was dedicated in his memory, and nearby
Hobart, in Brown County, Wisconsin, was named for him in 1908.[5]
Consecrators
Publications
·
A Clergyman's Companion (1805)
·
A Companion for the Altar (1804)
·
A Companion to the Book of
Common Prayer (1805)
·
Festivals and Fasts (1804)
See also
List of Bishop Succession in the Episcopal Church
Further reading
·
Memorial of Bishop Hobart, containing a Memoir (New York, 1831)
·
John McVickar, The Early
Life and Professional Years of Bishop Hobart (New York, 1834)
·
John McVicar, The Closing
Years of Bishop Hobart (New York, 1836).
References
·
The Catholic Movement in the
American Episcopal Church (2nd Ed.) by George E.
DeMille (Philadelphia: Church Historical Society, 1950)
·
A History of the Episcopal
Church by Robert Prichard (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Pub.,
1999)
·
The Episcopal Church Annual. Morehouse Publishing: New York, NY (2005).
External links
3rd Bishop of New York
1816–1830 |
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