The Biographical Dictionary of America/Atkinson, Thomas

ATKINSON, Thomas, third bishop of North Carolina and 58th in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Dinwiddie county, Va., Aug. 6, 1807. He was educated at Yale and afterwards at Hampden-Sidney college in Virginia, where he was graduated in 1825. He studied law and practised for nine years, when he turned to the church, pursued his theological course, and was admitted to the diaconate, Nov. 18, 1836. He was consecrated to the priesthood in St. Paul's, Norfolk, Va., May 7, 1837, where he served for a short time as assistant minister, and for a period of two years as rector. His next charge, 1839-1843, was St. Paul's, Lynchburg. In 1843 he became rector of St. Peters, Baltimore, and in 1852 rector of Grace Church in the same place. Here Dr. Atkinson remained barely a year, being elected to the episcopal office in 1853. He was consecrated bishop of North Carolina at St. John's chapel. New York, Oct. 17, 1853. During the civil war Bishop Atkinson took an active part in the measures adopted to establish the Episcopal church in the confederate states, but when reconstruction took place he was one of two southern bishops who took their seats in the general convention of 1865. In December, 1873, Rt. Rev. Theodore Benedict Lyman was given to the venerable prelate as assistant. In 1846, he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity college; in 1863 the University of North Carolina conferred upon him the Doctorate of Laws, and in 1867, on the occasion of his visit to England to attend the Lambeth conference, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the university of Cambridge, England. The life of Bishop Atkinson was one of devout consecration to the charges he had assumed. He was a preacher of great eloquence. His published works were sermons on special occasions, lectures, charges, etc., a charge on "Sacramental Confession," and a pamphlet in reply to the criticism of the Roman Catholic bishop of Richmond on the above charge. He died at Wilmington, N. C., Jan. 4, 1881.