William Loyall Gravatt
| The Right Reverend William Loyall Gravatt |
|
|---|---|
| II Bishop of West Virginia | |
 |
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| Province |
The Episcopal Church 
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| Diocese | West Virginia |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 20, 1885 |
| Consecration | November 10, 1899 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 15, 1859 Port Royal, Virginia |
| Died | February 14, 1942 Charleston, West Virginia |
William Loyall Gravatt (December 15, 1859 - February 14, 1942) became the second Bishop of West Virginia in the Episcopal Church in the United States, after serving as coadjutor to Bishop George William Peterkin.
Born in Port Royal, Virginia, William was the grandson of merchant Robert Gravatt, whose Huguenot ancestors had arrived in Caroline County, Virginia after France repealed the Edict of Nantes and began persecuting Protestants. His father was Dr. John James Gravatt (1817-1886) and mother Mary Eliza Smith of Richmond (daughter of Col. J.H. Smith of distinguished English ancestry). Dr. Gravatt served on the vestry of the local Episcopal church for 31 years, and was ultimately buried in the St. Peter's churchyard. One elder brother became a doctor like their father, a sister married a Confederate general, and John Gravatt also became an Episcopal priest in Virginia. During the American Civil War, Dr. Gravatt, a surgeon, ran a hospital in Richmond. After the war, Dr. Gravatt served as Port Royal's mayor as well as became a delegate to the Reconstruction Convention.
Young William Gravatt studied at Virginia Tech, and then theology at the Virginia Theological Seminary, graduating in 1884. He later received honorary degrees from Washington and Lee University and the University of the South.
He married Sidney S. Peyton of Richmond in 1887 and the couple would ultimately have four children, and die within hours of each other.
After graduation, William Gravatt served as a curate at St. Paul's Church in Richmond, Virginia for three years, during which he was ordained as a deacon by bishop Francis McNeece Whittle in 1885 and as a priest by the same bishop the following year. Rev. Gravatt then became the rector at St. Peter's Church in Norfolk, Virginia, a newly founded parish where he served until 1893.
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