Thomas Atkinson (bishop)

Thomas Atkinson (August 6, 1807 – January 4, 1881) was the third Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina.

The Rt. Rev. Thomas Atkinson

Early life

Atkinson was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, the son of Robert Atkinson and Mary (Mayo) Atkinson. He attended Yale University and Hampden-Sydney College, graduating from the latter in 1825. Upon graduation, he studied under Judge Henry St. George Tucker and practiced law for eight years before turning to theology. In 1828 he married Josepha Gwinn Wilder, with whom he had three children.

Atkinson was ordained deacon in 1836, and ordained priest the following year. As deacon, Davis Served as assistant minister at Christ Church in Norfolk, Virginia. After his ordination to the priesthood, he became rector of St. Paul's Church in Norfolk. In 1839, he moved to Lynchburg to become rector of St. Paul's Church in that town, remaining there for five years.

In 1843, Atkinson moved again, to Maryland, where he became the rector of St. Peter's Church in Baltimore. In 1843 and 1846, he was elected bishop of Indiana, declining the honor both times. In 1852, he became rector of Grace Church in the same city, having organized the new parish himself.

Bishop of North Carolina

Davis was elected Bishop of North Carolina in 1853, following a sharply divided convention. Consecrated by Bishops Thomas Church Brownell, Charles Pettit McIlvaine, and George Washington Doane, Cobb became the 58th bishop in the Episcopal Church. As bishop, Atkinson founded a church school for boys in Raleigh and the Ravenscroft School in Asheville. He urged the religious instruction of slaves. Initially opposing secession, after the American Civil War began, Bishop Atkinson affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America.

After the war, in 1866, Atkinson placed the operation of black Episcopal churches fully in the hands of black clergymen. Two years later, he opened the Episcopal school for blacks near Raleigh that eventually became St. Augustine's College. In 1867, he attended the first Lambeth Conference at Lambeth Palace in 1867. As his health declined, Atkinson requested the assistance of a coadjutor bishop, and Theodore Benedict Lyman was elected to that position in 1873. He died in 1881 and was buried at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington, North Carolina.

References

• Batterson, Hermon Griswold (1878). A Sketch-book of the American Episcopate. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott & Co. Retrieved 2009-07-29.