Charles Pettit McIlvaine

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Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799–1873) was a prominent American Episcopal bishop, writer, and educator. He served the United States in several important religious and educational roles, including twice as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate and as a leading voice of Evangelical Anglicanism. He was the second bishop of Ohio and the president of Kenyon College.

McIlvaine was born January 18, 1799, in Burlington, New Jersey, to Joseph McIlvaine, who would later become a U.S. senator, and Maria Reed. He studied at Burlington Academy and Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey), graduating in 1816, and began training for the ministry. He was ordained a deacon in 1820 and a priest in 1821. His early ministry included time at Christ Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. He became the Senate’s chaplain in 1822 and later again in 1824.

From 1825 to 1827 he served as chaplain and ethics professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his students included Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. He held roles at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn and taught at the University of the City of New York. In 1832, he became the second president of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and was also elected Bishop of Ohio, a position he held from 1832 to 1873. McIlvaine was a strong advocate of Evangelicalism and wrote a well-known critique of the Oxford Movement, Oxford Divinity Compared with That of the Romish and Anglican Churches.

During the Civil War era, McIlvaine was highly respected internationally for his anti-Oxford Movement stance. After the war began, President Lincoln asked him to travel to England with Archbishop Hughes and Peter Force to argue against British recognition of the Confederacy; he met with leaders at Buckingham Palace and in Parliament.

McIlvaine died on March 13, 1873, in Florence, Italy. His body lay in state at Westminster Abbey for four days—the only American ever to receive that honor. He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. He was married to Emily Coxe and had four children. He remained a Princeton alum and left a lasting impact as a bishop, educator, and defender of Evangelical Anglican thought.