Cheshire, Joseph Blount, 1850-1932

Joseph Blount Cheshire (1850-1932) was Episcopal bishop of North Carolina from 1893 until 1932.

Joseph Blount Cheshire, son of the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire (1814-1899) and Elizabeth Toole Parker Cheshire, was born in Tarboro, N.C., 27 March 1850. In 1869, he received a B.A. from Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn. After he graduated from college, Cheshire taught Greek and Latin at St. Clement's Hall in Ellicott City, Md.

In 1871, Cheshire moved back to North Carolina and began studying law under William Ruffin of Hillsborough and then under Judge George Howard of Tarboro. Cheshire was licensed to practice law in 1872. He began his work as a lawyer in Baltimore, Md., with his college friend George Hooper. Fifteen months later, Cheshire joined the the law firm of Colonel John L. Bridgers and his son in Tarboro, N.C.

In 1876, Cheshire began to consider becoming a candidate for holy orders and began studying theology under the direction of his father. In 1878, he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Kemp Battle, president of the University of North Carolina, requested that Cheshire be assigned to Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill. While at Chapel of the Cross, Cheshire organized the mission of St. Phillip's in Durham.

Cheshire was ordained in 1880. In 1881, he became rector of St. Peter's Church in Charlotte; he was rector there for twelve years. During this time, Cheshire was deeply involved in mission work in Charlotte and the surrounding counties. In Charlotte, he organized St. Martin's Church and St. Michael and All Angels, a black mission. He also organized St. Mark's mission in Mecklenburg and St. Paul's mission in Monroe. He was actively involved in building two hospitals in the Charlotte area, St. Peter's and Good Samaritan. In addition, Cheshire, with the help of the Reverend E. A. Osborne, established the Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte.

In October 1893, Cheshire was elected Bishop Coadjuator to Bishop Thomas Lyman. After the death of Bishop Lyman in December 1893, Cheshire became the first native North Carolinian to be elected bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.

Cheshire accomplished much during his tenure as Bishop and was prominent in the national church. He was very interested in the cause of mission and promoted the growth of the Episcopal Church in the mountains of western North Carolina. In 1895, his efforts led to the creation of a separate mission district in the western part of the state, which was later given its own bishop.

Cheshire was also noted for his contributions to education in the diocese. At his urging, St. Mary's School in Raleigh, now St. Mary's College, became a diocesan institution. (It had been a private girls' school run by an Episcopal clergyman and was failing.) Under Cheshire's leadership, its endowment grew and its success was insured. Cheshire also established St. Augustine's School in Raleigh, which was devoted to the education of African-Americans.

Cheshire's relationship with black Episcopalians in the Diocese was apparently very good. During his episcopacy, Henry B. Delany, a black clergyman, was elected Suffragan Bishop. Cheshire served on the General Convention's Joint Commission on a Racial Episcopate. He did not support separation of the races, but supported the idea of separate bishops for blacks after he was persuaded that blacks themselves preferred it.

Cheshire was a writer and a historian as well as a clergyman. He was elected president of the State Literary and Historical Association in 1930. His most famous historical work, The Church in the Confederate States, was published in 1912. Nonnulla, a book of reminiscences, Cheshire's most popular book, was published in 1930.

Cheshire married Annie Huske Webb of Hillsborough, N.C., in 1874. They had six children: Elizabeth Toole, Sarah, Joseph Blount, Jr., Annie, James Webb, and Godfrey. Cheshire's wife died in 1897, and two years later, he married again. His second wife was Elizabeth Lansdale Mitchell of Beltsville, Md. They had no children.

After 1922, Cheshire gradually began to turn over his episcopal duties to his Bishop Coadjutor, the Reverend Edwin Penick. Joseph Blount Cheshire died 27 December 1932.