1584-1776: America is colonized
The English church remains "the conservative party at prayer."
| 1584 |
Richard Hakluyt, priest, writes "A Discourse on Western Planting", provides impetus for colonization
of America to pre-empt Roman Catholics. |
| 1597 |
Francis Drake, English privateer, lands in San Francisco Bay and conducts first Anglican service in North America. |
| 1607 |
Founding of Jamestown colony in Virginia. Most colonists have Puritan leanings. Robert Hunt, priest, leads Morning
and Evening Prayer daily. |
| 1611 |
Attendance at prayers made mandatory under "Dales's Laws". |
| 1624 |
Virginia becomes a royal colony, required to conform to Church of England (though without a bishop, confirmations,
ordinations, etc.) |
| 1620 |
Plymouth colony founded by Separatists. |
| 1630 |
Massachusetts Bay colony founded by Puritans on a Calvinist model for a Christian commonwealth. |
| 1684 |
Massachusetts Bay colony's charter as a Puritan state is revoked by England. |
| 1687 |
Anglican liturgy is introduced at South Church, Boston, on Good Friday. Irate Puritans wait outside until it is
over. |
| 1691 |
Freedom of worship guaranteed in New England and New York for all Protestants. King's Chapel in Boston is the center
of Anglican worship, but there are essentially no parishes for several decades |
| 1696 |
Thomas Bray, priest, put in charge of church work in Maryland. His people have an effective ministry in the southern
colonies, especially to orphans, blacks and native Americans. |
| 1699 |
Bray founds Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. |
| 1701 |
Bray founds Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which sponsors over 300 missionaries in the colonies over
the next century. |
| 1722 |
Timothy Cutler, rector of Yale, and Samuel Johnson, Congregational pastor of New Haven, announce their conversion
to Anglicanism at Yale graduation. They return from England a few years later as S.P.G. missionaries. |
| 1733 |
James Oglethorpe founds Georgia colony for relief of debtors; the idea is Bray's. |
