Samuel David Ferguson

The Rt. Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson, D.D., D.C.L., Fourth Bishop of Liberia, 1885-1916. (c.1908)

Samuel David Ferguson (January 1, 1842 – August 2, 1916) was the first American born Black person to be elected a bishop of the Episcopal Church in Liberia. He was born at Charleston, South Carolina and died in Cape Palmas, Liberia.

Ferguson moved with his family to Liberia at age six. He was ordained a deacon on December 28, 1865 and a priest on March 15, 1868. He was consecrated as bishop on June 24, 1885 (Saint John the Baptist's Feast Day), at Grace Church, New York, becoming the first black member of the House of Bishops.^[1] He married Mary Leonora Montgomery.

As Missionary Bishop of Liberia, he founded what is now Cuttington University College.^[2] Ferguson also established the Bromley Mission School. One of his protégés, Raphael Morgan became an Episcopal priest in the United States, but ultimately converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ferguson remained in Liberia until his death, in Monrovia in 1916.

Notes

1. African American Registry
2. Cuttington University College site

References

• Representative Man - A Note on Samuel David Ferguson: America's 1st Black Bishop, Seward Montgomery Cooper (2005)
• Handbooks on Missions of the Episcopal Church Number IV Liberia, National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Department of Foreign Missions, New York, 1924, p. 50
• History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Maryland: Church Advocate Press, 1922, p. 206, by George F. Bragg
• History of the Episcopal Church in Liberia 1821-1980, American Theological Library Association and Scarecrow Press, Inc. London (1992), p. 155, by D. Elwood Dunn

External links

• Profile, Encyclopædia Britannica, Guide to Black History