Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Inglis, Charles (1734-1816)
INGLIS, CHARLES (1734–1816), bishop of Nova Scotia, was born, apparently, in New York, in 1734. From 1755 to 1758 be conducted a free school at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and gained the goodwill of the neighbours, who recommended him to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He came to England, was ordained by the Bishop of London, and, returning to America, began work on the Dover mission station, which then included the county of Kent, Delaware, 1 July 1759. In 1765 he became assistant to Dr. Auchnutz, at Holy Trinity Church, New York, and catechist to the negroes. While there he took part in the controversy on the subject of the American episcopacy, advocating its foundation in a pamphlet, and being a member of the voluntary convocation which met 21 May 1766. In conjunction with Sir William Johnson he actively assisted in evangelical work among the Mohawk Indians. The university of Oxford created him by diploma M.A. 6 April 1770, and D.D. 25 Feb. 1778 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. p. 728). In 1776, when Washington obtained possession of New York, Inglis, as a loyalist, retired to Long Island for a time, but Dr. Auchnutz died 4 March 1777, and Inglis was chosen to succeed him in the benefice of Holy Trinity. The church had just been burnt down, and Inglis was inducted by Governor Tryon among the ruins. His loyalty to the English crown rendered him obnoxious to the new American government. His property was taken from him, and he appeared in the Act of Attainder of 1779. He resigned his living 1 Nov. 1783, and visited England. On 12 Aug. 1787 he was consecrated first bishop of Nova Scotia, thus becoming the first British colonial bishop; he proceeded to his diocese, and in 1809 was made a member of the council of Nova Scotia. He died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1816. Inglis married Margaret Crooke, daughter of John Crooke of Ulster county, New York, and by her had two daughters and a son, John, who became in 1825 third bishop of Nova Scotia, died in London in 1850, and was the father of Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis [q. v.] Inglis published a few pamphlets.
[Sabine's Loyalists of American Revolution, i. 563–5; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 151, 516, vii. 263, ix. 527, 2nd. ser. 461, 4th ser. viii. 87; Mag. of American Hist. ii. 59; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. vii. 488; Perry's Hist. of the Amer. Episc. Ch. i. 242, &c., ii. 50n. &c.; Windsor's Hist. of Amer. vi. 270, 608; Anderson's Hist. of the Colonial Church, i. 420, iii. 435, 602–7, 716; Documentary Hist. of New York, vols. iii. and iv.]