INGLIS, Rt. Rev. Charles: 1734 - 1816
Tile ordered and paid for by M. Chadwick, Toronto, Ontario, July 1888
Charles Inglis was born in County Donegal, Ireland, the third son of the Reverend Archibald Inglis.
Because his father died when Charles was just eleven, unlike his elder brother, who was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Charles was not able to attend college. However, he was tutored by his brother and received a sound education in the classics. In 1754, at the age of twenty, he traveled to America to teach in Pennsylvania. Four years later he returned to England and was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church. He returned to Pennsylvania where he served as a minister for six years.(1)
In 1765, Charles Inglis became assistant priest in Trinity Parish, New York and served in this prestigious position throughout the American Revolution. The Revolutionaries were strongly opposed to the established Anglican Church—they burned churches, destroyed libraries, and imprisoned or banished clergy. Before the British occupied the city of New York in 1776, the Inglis home had been plundered by the revolutionaries. Reverend Inglis, an outspoken critic of the revolution, used his pulpit to speak out against it and wrote many treatises in defense of the British model of governance. It is recorded that Inglis prayed aloud for King George III while George Washington was in the congregation. The church was quickly surrounded by militia.(2)
At the time of the evacuation of New York in 1783, Inglis left America with his family for Britain. In 1786, Inglis was selected as Bishop of Nova Scotia which at the time included not only the colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick but also Newfoundland, St. John’s (Prince Edward) Island, the old province of Quebec, and Bermuda. Choosing Halifax as his headquarters, Charles Inglis worked hard in the new settlement and established churches throughout Nova Scotia. He founded King’s College, Halifax which opened as a grammar school in 1788 and was chartered as a university in 1802.(3)
Charles Inglis had first married Mary Vining of Salem County, New Jersey in 1764. Mary died from complications of childbirth. Charles and Margaret Crooke were married in 1773 and they had four children. Just before the family was forced to evacuate from New York in 1783, Charles lost both his eldest son and his wife. After receiving his appointment as bishop he settled permanently in Nova Scotia with his three children, Margaret, John and Anne. His bequest to his children included a country estate and over 1200 acres of land in the Annapolis Valley.
Charles Inglis died at his home in Aylesford, Nova Scotia, on February 24, 1816.
1. “Charles Inglis, 1734-1816,” Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia, via www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS.
2. “Charles Inglis,”, www.wikipedia.org, accessed June 2011.
3. “Inglis, Charles,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Vol. V.