Robert Smith

Robert Smith (August 25, 1732 – October 28, 1801) was an English-born American clergyman, planter and prelate of the Episcopal Church who served as the first Bishop of South Carolina from 1795 to 1801. Early life, education, and ordained ministry Smith was born on August 25, 1732, in Worstead, Norfolk, England, to Stephen Smith and Hannah Press. He was educated at the Norwich Grammar School, before enrolling at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1753. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pennsylvania in 1789.Smith was ordained deacon in the Church of England on March 7, 1756, and then priest on December 21, 1756, both by the Bishop of Ely Matthias Mawson. He then emigrated to the Province of South Carolina, where he became assistant minister of St Philip's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1757. In 1759 he became rector of the same church. He was also a supporter of the American Revolution. He fled from Charleston after in 1780 to the Province of Maryland after the former was occupied by the British. While there, he served as priest-in-charge of St Paul's Church in Brandywine, Maryland. In 1783, he returned to serve as rector of St Philip's Church in Charleston. On February 10, 1795, Smith was unanimously elected the first Bishop of South Carolina and was consecrated on September 13, 1795, the sixth bishop in the American Episcopal succession. The 1775 Humiliation Sermon and other notable sermons