The Right Reverend Edward Bass (November 23, 1726 – September 10, 1803) was the first American Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts and second bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island.
Bass attended Harvard University, graduating in 1744. He taught and preached in Congregationalist churches, then went to England to be ordained by the bishop of London in May 1752. He had been appointed assistant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Newburyport...
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The Right Reverend Edward Bass (November 23, 1726 – September 10, 1803) was the first American Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts and second bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island.
Bass attended Harvard University, graduating in 1744. He taught and preached in Congregationalist churches, then went to England to be ordained by the bishop of London in May 1752. He had been appointed assistant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1749 by the new rector, Matthias Plant, whom he followed as rector in 1753, serving until his death in 1803.
Bass considered himself neutral during the American Revolution but was accused by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts of supporting the colonists and lost his financial support. In May 1789, the first convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts, meeting in Salem, elected Bass bishop of Massachusetts and Rhode Island but his parish rejected the election because lay delegates did not...
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