Thomas Nettleship Staley
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The Right Reverend Thomas Nettleship Staley |
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|---|---|
| Bishop of Hawaii | |
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| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Hawaii |
| In office | 1862-1870 |
| Successor | Alfred Willis |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
17 January 1823 Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 1 November 1898 (aged 75) Bournemouth, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Spouse | Catherine Workman Shirley |
Thomas Nettleship Staley (17 January 1823 – 1 November 1898) was a British bishop of the Church of England, the first Anglican bishop of the Church of Hawaii.
Thomas Nettleship Staley was born 17 January 1823 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. His father was minister William Staley. Staley entered Queens' College, Cambridge in 1840, earned his BA in 1844, and became a Fellow in 1847 after earning his MA. He was Tutor at St. Mark's College, Chelsea 1844-48 and Headmaster of the St. Mark's Practising School 1848-50 (whilst still lecturing at St. Mark's College) and then Principal of the Collegiate School, Wandsworth. He married Catherine Workman Shirley Staley in September 1850.
He was appointed by John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and consecrated on 15 December 1861, at the suggestion of Samuel Wilberforce and Queen Victoria, as the church's first bishop of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He and his wife departed on 17 August 1862 and arrived in Honolulu in October 1862, a few weeks after the death of Albert, Prince of Hawaii, the only son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma Kaleleonālani Naʻea.
His presence provoked conflict with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions because they considered him a symbol of ritualism. The fact that he was a Bishop also bothered the Calvinists who disliked any kind of religious hierarchy. In a letter to Rufus Anderson of the American Board, British missionary William Ellis (who had visited the Hawaiian islands in 1825) wrote that Staley was "associated with that section of the Church of England from which the greatest number of perverts to Popery has proceeded, and between whom and the Roman Catholics the difference is reported to be slight..." Even the American writer Mark Twain criticized Staley as an agent of Britain.
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