St. John's Episcopal Cathedral

St. John's Cathedral, founded as King's Church in Providence in 1722, was one of the four colonial Episcopal churches whose representatives gathered in Newport in November 1790 to form the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. The other three charter members of the diocese were Trinity Church in Newport (1702), St. Paul's in Narragansett (1707), and St. Michael's in Bristol (1720).

The Episcopal church in Rhode Island owes its founding largely to an expatriate French Huguenot named Gabriel Bernon . Bernon, a well-to-do French merchant, was persecuted for his religious beliefs and fled France for Amsterdam in 1686 and London in 1687. While in England, Bernon converted to the Anglican faith and shortly thereafter, in 1690, moved to Boston. He finally made his way to Newport in 1697. Two years later Bernon's name appeared on a petition to Lord Bellomont, Royal Governor of Massachusetts, for assistance in obtaining a permanent minister for an Anglican congregation in Newport. Thus was Trinity Church born. Bernon also played a role in the founding of St. Paul's Church in Narragansett in 1707.

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