Provoost, Samuel

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Samuel Provoost (prō´vōst), 1742–1815, first Episcopal bishop of New York, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1758. He studied at Cambridge and in 1766 was ordained. He was appointed assistant minister of Trinity parish in New York City. Because of his sympathy with the colonial cause, Provoost was forced (1771) to resign from Trinity but returned as rector in 1784. Created bishop of New York (1786), he was consecrated (1787) in England. He served as chaplain to the Continental Congress (1785) and to the U.S. Senate (1789).

See J. G. Wilson, Samuel Provoost (1887).