Christopher Edwards Gadsden

{{Short description|American episcopal bishop (1785–1852)}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend | name = Christopher Edwards Gadsden | honorific_suffix = D.D. | title = Bishop of South Carolina | image = Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Portrait of Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden by Charles Fraser (1819) | native_name = | native_name_lang = | church = Episcopal Church | archdiocese = | province = | metropolis = | diocese = South Carolina | see = | elected = January 1840 | term = 1840–1852 | quashed =  | predecessor = Nathaniel Bowen | successor = Thomas F. Davis | opposed = | other_post =  | ordination = April 14, 1810 | ordained_by = James Madison | consecration = June 21, 1840 | consecrated_by = Alexander Viets Griswold | rank = | laicized =  | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1785|11|17}} | birth_place = Charleston, South Carolina, United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1852|06|24|1785|11|17}} | death_place = Charleston, South Carolina, United States | buried = St. Philip's Episcopal Church (Charleston, South Carolina) | resting_place_coordinates = | religion = Anglican | parents = Philip Gadsden & Catherine Edwards | spouse = Eliza Allston Bowman ''(m. 1816; d. 1826)'' Jane Dewes ''(m. 1830)'' | children = 8 | occupation = | profession =  | education = | alma_mater = | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = | coat_of_arms_alt =  | module = {{infobox person | embed = yes | relatives = {{ubl |Christopher Gadsden (grandfather) |James Gadsden (brother) |John Gadsden (brother) }} }} | module2 = | other = }} '''Christopher Edwards Gadsden''' (November 25, 1785 – June 24, 1852) was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina.

==Early life== Gadsden was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1785, the son of Philip Gadsden and his wife, Catherine Edwards.<ref name=AAP510>Sprague, 510</ref> He was a grandson of Christopher Gadsden, the South Carolina Revolutionary leader.<ref name=AAP510/> One of his brothers, John Gadsden, served two terms as the Mayor of Charleston, and another brother, James Gadsden, was the namesake of the Gadsden Purchase.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/gabaldon-gafney.html|title=The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Gaa to Gagan|website=politicalgraveyard.com}}</ref>

As a youth, he attended both the Episcopal Church of his father and his mother's Congregational Church.<ref name=AAP510/> Beginning in his junior year, Gadsden attended Yale University, graduating in 1804.<ref name=AAP511>Sprague, 511</ref> He was ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1807 by Bishop Moore, and in 1810 was ordained priest by Bishop Madison.<ref name=AAP511/>

==Career== thumb|left|The Rt. Rev. Christopher Edwards Gadsden Soon thereafter, he became rector of St. John's Church in Berkeley County, South Carolina.<ref>Dexter, 656</ref> In 1814, Gadsden became rector of St. Philip's Church in Charleston, the oldest congregation in the diocese.<ref name=AAP511/> He received a doctorate of divinity the following year from South Carolina College.<ref name=AAP511/>

In 1840, after the death of Bishop Bowen, a dispute arose in the diocese over who would succeed him. Gadsden was elected, and was consecrated bishop in Trinity Church in Boston.<ref name=AAP512>Sprague, 512</ref> Gadsden was the 35th bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Alexander Viets Griswold, George Washington Doane, and Samuel Allen McCoskry. Gadsden was active in expanding the membership of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, usually visiting each congregation once a year. In 1852, at the diocese convention, he announced that ill health would prevent him from continuing his ministry, and he died shortly thereafter, in June of that year.<ref name=AAP512/>

==Personal life== He married Eliza Bowman in 1816.<ref name=AAP513>Sprague, 513</ref> She died in 1826, and Gadsden remarried in 1830 to Jane Dewees, the youngest daughter of William Dewees.<ref name=AAP513/> He had no children by his first marriage, but had eight with his second wife.<ref name=AAP513/>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *{{Cite book |title=Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History: With Annals of the College History |last=Dexter |first=Franklin Bowditch |year=1911 |publisher=H. Holt and Company|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalske01dextgoog}} *{{cite book |title=Annals of the American Pulpit Or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations (Vol. 5: Episcopalian, Part Two) |last=Sprague |first=William B. |year=2006 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=1-4286-4505-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-90GHBlWP8C }}

==External links== * [http://www.episcopalchurch.org Web site of the Episcopal Church] * [http://www.dioceseofsc.org/ Web site of the Diocese of South Carolina]

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ep}} {{succession box|title=4th Bishop of South Carolina|before=Nathaniel Bowen|after=Thomas F. Davis|years=June 21, 1840 – June 24, 1852}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadsden, Christopher Edwards}} Category:1785 births Category:1852 deaths Category:Clergy from Charleston, South Carolina Category:Episcopal bishops of South Carolina Category:Yale University alumni Category:19th-century American Episcopalians