Home > Shaping of America 1783-1815 > William White Biography

Born April 4, 1748 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Died July 17, 1836 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Episcopal church leader

William White has been called the chief architect of the Episcopal Church in America. His gifts as a theologian and an organizer, along with his family connections, made him an important leader during the development of the Church. He was largely responsible for creating the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. White helped organize the system of church government that remains the base of the modern Episcopal Church. As the rector (clergyman in charge of a parish) of a prominent Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, parish, White wrote extensively on the unity and future growth of Anglicanism, or the Episcopal Church, in the new nation. He was elected bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania in 1786 and was presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church...