Welton, Richard, Dd

Welton, Richard, D.D.

a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, had been deprived of the rectorship of St. Mary's, Whitechapel, London, on account of his attachment to the non- jurors, and was consecrated in 1722 by Reverend Ralph Taylor. He arrived in America probably in 1723, was invited to take charge of Christ Church, Philadelphia, July 27, 1724, and entered immediately upon his duties. His anomalous relation to the Church as a non-juring bishop occasioned disquietude among the Episcopalians when it became known. Soon after an order came from England to governor Keith of Pennsylvania, enclosing a king's writ addressed to Welton, commanding him to return to England. Accordingly, in January 1726, after a brief but acceptable ministry, he embarked for Lisbon, where he died shortly after his arrival. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5:33.