The First Bishop
John England, the first Catholic bishop of Charleston, was born in 1786 in Cork, Ireland, to Thomas England and Honora Lordan; owners of a tobacco business. England, the oldest of ten children, became an ordained priest in Cork in 1808, and was then appointed chaplain to the North Presentation Convent in Cork. In 1817, England was transferred from Cork to Bandon, a nearby village where he served as the parish priest. England was consecrated as bishop in St. Finbar’s Church in Cork on September 21, 1820. With his sister, Joanna, and Father Denis Corkey, he travelled to Charleston aboard the ship Thomas Gelston, arriving in December, 1820. John England died in 1842.