Henry Ustic Onderdonk
Henry Ustic Onderdonk [1]
a brother of the preceding, and also an eminent American divine and bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born in the city of New York in March, 1789. He was educated at Columbia College, class of 1805, and then went abroad to study medicine in London and Edinburgh. After his return to this country he practiced in his profession for several years, but finally decided to enter the ministry. He was at that time (1815) editor, with Dr. Valentine Mott, of the N. Y. Medical Journal, but he closely applied himself to the study of divinity, and was soon after ordained deacon. In January, 1816, he went as missionary to Canandaigua, which, under his care, grew into a flourishing parish, and of this he became the rector in 1818. In 1820 he removed to Brooklyn as rector of St. Ann's Church. and there he gained much distinction as preacher and writer. In 1827 he was elected to the episcopacy, and. was consecrated assistant to the bishop of Pennsylvania Oct. 25 of that year. In 1837, on the death of bishop White, Onderdonk was put in full possession of the diocesan power, and he discharged its duties until 1844, when he felt compelled, by the dissatisfaction which had arisen among the clergy and laity of his diocese, to resign his episcopal functions. Not only was the resignation accepted by the House of Bishops, but they also brought him to trial for intemperance, and suspended him from the office and functions of the priesthood from and after Oct. 21 1844. In 1856 bishop Onderdonk was restored to the sacred ministry and to his diocese, but he did not resume. the privileges of his office, and died only two years later, Dec. 6,1858, at Philadelphia. He published, Appeal to the Religious Public, etc., of Canandaigua (1818): — Episcopacy tested by Scripture (N.Y. 1846; first, published as an essay in the Protestant Episcopalian, November and December, 1830; second, in pamphlet form anonymously; third, as a tract by the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society; and then reviewed by the Rev. Albert Barnes in the Christian Spectator, 1834-this review was reprinted in Barnes's Miscellaneous Essays and Reviews, 1855, 1:200-251): — Episcopacy Examined And Re-Examined (1835): — Essay on Regeneration (Phila. 1835): — Family Devotions from the Liturgy (1835): — Sermons and Episcopal Charges (1851, 2 vols. 8vo). "They show him to be not only a polished writer, but a scholar and reasoner of the highest rank" (R.W. Griswold, D.D.). Bishop Onderdonk also published a number of occasional Sermons, Tracts, and Pamphlets, and contributed papers to the American Medical and Philosophical Register, the New-York Medical Magazine, the Church Register, the Churchman's Monthly Magazine, the Evergreen, the Protestant Episcopalian, the Banner of the Cross, the Churchman, etc. He has besides substantial claims to the character of a poet; in evidence of which we may instance Hymns Nos. 14, 105, 106, 109, 131, 195, 203, 208, 211, and Psalms 16, 23,, 59. in the Book of Common Prayer of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Drake, Dict. of Amer. Biog. s.v.; and the article by Prof. Spencer in The Amer. Cyclop. s.v.
