Dashiell, George

(1780-Apr. 1852). Priest who sought to found an evangelical Episcopal Church. He was born in Stepney, Maryland. Dashiell was licensed as a lay reader at the age of twenty. He was ordained deacon on June 9, 1805, and subsequently ordained priest (date unavailable). He served churches in Maryland and Delaware. He later became the rector of St. Peter's Church, Baltimore. He served on the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Maryland, and he was a deputy to four General Conventions. Dashiell was strongly opposed to the election of James Kemp as Suffragan Bishop of Maryland in 1814. He led a small group of followers out of the Episcopal Church to make, as he said, “the evangelical part of the church a distinct body, and to enlarge its boundaries by admitting faithful men to labor in the work of the Lord.” He was unable to get any bishop to consecrate him, but he began to ordain men for what he called the Evangelical Episcopal Church. Dashiell was deposed from the ministry of the Episcopal Church on Dec. 8, 1815. His movement died out when he moved from Maryland in 1826. Dashiell's actions were a forerunner of the Reformed Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1873 by Assistant Bishop of Kentucky George David Cummins, also a former rector of St. Peter's, Baltimore. Dashiell died in New York City. See Reformed Episcopal Church.