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Death of Bishop De Lancey.

Death of Bishop De Lancey.
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April 9, 1865, Page 5Buy Reprints
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From the Rochester Advertiser, April 4.

A dispatch from Geneva this afternoon announces the death of WILLIAM HEATHCOTX DE LANCEY, D.D., D.C.L., Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Western New-York. The Bishop was a native of Westchester County in this State, born October 8, 1797, and he had consequently nearly attained his 68th year.

Bishop DE LANCEY was graduated at Yale College in 1817, studied theology under the direction of Bishop HOBART, and received deacon's orders in 1819, Ordained to the priesthood in Trinity Church, New-York, in 1822, he soon after became personal assistant of the venerable Bishop WHITE of Philadelphia, in the three churches of which that prelate was rector, and in the succeeding year he was unanimously elected one of the regular assistant ministers of those Churches. He was annually chosen Secretary of the Diocesan Convention of Pennsylvania from 1823 to 1830, and was Secretary of the House of Bishops in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church of the United States from 1823 till 1829. Upon the reorganization of the University of Pennsylvania in 1828, he was chosen provost of that institution, and thereupon resigned his pastoral charge. He remained provost five years, and then resumed the office of assistant minister of St. Peter's Church, one of the three of which Bishop WHITE was rector. He traveled in Europe in 1835, and on his return, after the death of Bishop WHITE, succeeded to the rectorship of St. Peter's Church. In 1838 the Diocese of New-York, comprising the whole State, was divided, the eastern portion retaining the old name; and at the primary convention of the new Diocese, held at Geneva, Nov. 1, 1838 Dr. DE LANCEY was chosen its first Bishop, and he was consecrated May 9, 1839. He removed to Geneva, the seat of the Diocesan College, now called the Hobart Free College, which was chiefly indebted to his efficient efforts for its support. He also instituted a system of diocesan missions, by which a corps of laborers unusually large in proportion to the population and wealth of the diocese have been sustained to the present time, without incurring debt. In 1840, by his recommendation, a fund for the relief of infirm and aged clergy of the diocese was established, which, beside accomplishing its object, has accumulated a capital of about $5,000. His sermon on the office of bishop, preached Dec. 29, 1842, at the consecration of Dr. EASTBURN as Bishop of Massachusetts, was widely circulated and highly esteemed. In 1846, at a meeting of the trustees of the General Theological Seminary of New-York City, he made a proposition for the dissolution of that school as a general institution of the Church, with the view of counteracting the distrust and hostility of which it was the object, and also of preparing the way for a realization of his own scheme of diocesan schools. Though this measure was not adopted, in 1855 he brought forward his plan for a diocesan "training school," to be supported by a charity foundation, and to afford the requisite education to all persons qualified and disposed to enter upon the work of the ministry. In 1852 he visited England as a delegate from the Episcopal bishops of the United States. In 1858 Bishop DE LANCEY had ordained 113 deacons and 125 priests, have consecrated 80 church edifices, and admitted to the communion of the Church by the rite of confirmation, 14,697 persons. Since 1858 the Bishop's labors had been arduous and wore upon him, but they were diligently performed. Only a few months ago he was relieved of a portion of them by the appointment of Right Rev. Dr. COXE as an assistant or associate Bishop with his residence at Buffalo.

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