William Mercer Green

William Mercer Green (May 2, 1798 – February 13, 1887) was the first Episcopal bishop of Mississippi.

Green was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1798. He was the son of William Green, a North Carolina rice planter, and Mary (Bradley) Green, a woman of Quaker extraction. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1818 and was ordained deacon April 29, 1821. Two years later, on April 20, 1823, Green was ordained priest. He became the rector of St. John's Church in Williamsboro, North Carolina, where he remained for four years. He then moved to Hillsborough, where he was rector of St. Matthew's Church until 1837. In that year, he was appointed chaplain and professor of belles-lettres at the University of North Carolina. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1845.

Green was elected in 1849 as the first bishop of the diocese of Mississippi. He was the 51st bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated in St. Andrew's Church, Jackson, Mississippi, February 24, 1850 by Bishops James Hervey Otey, Leonidas Polk, and Nicholas Hamner Cobbs. He consecrated the Chapel of the Cross in 1852. He was among founders of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1860 and became its chancellor in 1867.

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