ABSTRACT
Jackson Kemper was consecrated the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church on September 1835, Pennsylvania. Kemper was the first missionary of a diocesan missionary society in Pennsylvania, and he was a leader in the formation of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society in 1820 and 1821. Kemper's election as missionary bishop for the Northwest was a bold new step for the Episcopal Church in emerging from its lethargy in the early nineteenth century. Kemper recognized financial development as a necessary part of his duty as missionary bishop. In a letter to Elizabeth he mentions his willingness to become Bishop of Maryland in obedience to the needs of the church, despite his great reluctance to resign the missionary episcopate: 'he only heard last Wednesday of my Maryland appointment. Kemper obviously loved his daughter deeply, but he had a clear sense of God's providence.
