Byles, Mather, Dd

Byles, Mather, D.D.

a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, son of Mather Byles, D.D., of the Hollis-street Church, Boston, was born in that city in 1734. He graduated from Harvard College in 1751; was settled as a Congregational clergyman, Nov. 18, 1757, in New London, Conn.; was dismissed in 1768, having become an Episcopalian. The same year he became rector of Christ Church, Boston, where he served until April, 1775, when he accepted an invitation to become rector in Portsmouth, N. H. In 1776, owing, doubtless, to his strong loyalty to the king, he left the country and went to Halifax, N. S., and in 1778 he was banished from the American colonies. After the war he became rector and chaplain at St. John's, N. B. He died March 12, 1814. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 379.