Lay, Henry Champlin
Item
- Connection to Legacies of American Slavery Database
- Name
- One-line bio
- Biography
- Date of Birth
- Date of Death
- Historical Period
- Wikidata Link
-
Lay, Henry Champlin
-
Henry C. Lay was an Episcopal priest in Huntsville, Alabama, Episcopal missionary Bishop to the Southwest (1859), a founding trustee of the University of the South, and an owner of enslaved persons.
-
Henry C. Lay was educated at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. In 1848 he was ordained and became rector of the Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama. He raised money from wealthy slave-owning planters in the region to complete the impressive church edifice in 1859. That same year he was consecrated Missionary Bishop of the Southwest, a sprawling diocese that included Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and territories farther west. Upon his appointment, he launched a fundraising campaign on the eastern seaboard from Savannah to New England. Upon returning to Huntsville and before moving to Arkansas, he used the proceeds to purchase an enslaved girl. Lay was deeply involved in the founding of the University of the South, lobbying intensely to have the institution located near Huntsville. During the Civil War, he represented the Arkansas diocese in the CSA division of the church, enthusiastically supported the Confederate military campaign (including preaching to soldiers), and delivered sermons defending slavery and the Confederacy. After the war, he became bishop of the Diocese of Easton in Maryland.
-
1823
-
1885
Position: 782 (8 views)
