Thomas, Edward

Thomas, Edward an Episcopal clergyman, was born in St. Stephen's Parish, S. C., Sept. 28, 1800, and received his early education at the grammar-school in Pineville. In 1817 he entered the sophomore class in the South Carolina College, Columbia, and graduated in 1819. He lived in Cambridge, Mass., in order to study at Harvard College; and, after a few months, transferred his residence to New Haven, prosecuting his studies at Yale. He entered the Theological Seminary, city of New York, in 1822; returned to his native state in the fall of 1824; and, in February, 1825, was ordained deacon by bishop Bowen, and became a missionary first to Fairfield District, and afterwards to Greenville. In April, 1826, he was admitted to priest's orders by bishop Bowen, and, after filling out his unexpired term at Greenville, became rector, February, 1827, of Trinity Church on Edisto Island. In 1834 he resigned his charge on account of ill-health, and went to reside at St. Augustine, Fla., where his health so improved that the rectorship of the Church there was offered to him. He declined, and after a further residence there returned to South Carolina, and in 1836 accepted a call to the parish of St. John's, Berkeley County. In the winter of 1837-38 the disease of which he did (an affection of the bowels) began to show itself, but he continued to labor on until May 24,1840, when he gave up work entirely, dying July 11 of the same year. A volume of Sermons was published after his death, under the supervision of his widow. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5,664.