Background
He was born on November 23, 1726, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Breck) Bass.
He was born on November 23, 1726, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Breck) Bass.
He gained admission to Harvard College at the age of thirteen, graduated in the class of 1744, and for the next three years remained in the college, studying for the M. A. degree, which he received in 1747.
On May 17, 1752, he was made deacon by the Bishop of London, Thomas Sherlock, and a week later was ordained to the priesthood by the same bishop. Upon his return to America, he took charge in the fall of 1752, of St. Paul's Church, in that part of Newbury, Massachussets, which later became Newburyport.
During the Revolution Bass lukewarmly supported the colonial cause but did not escape all together from patriot persecutions. At the close of the Revolution the Episcopal Church in America was in a deplorable state, badly shattered, and regarded with disfavor because of its connection with the Church of England. To rehabilitate it and adapt it to the new conditions was a difficult and delicate task. Bishops were chosen in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. When Massachusetts was ready to choose its bishop, it turned to Bass, who had been so long in charge of the parish at Newburyport. He was elected June 4, 1789, but his consecration was delayed, and then was indefinitely postponed.
His first wife, Sarah Beck, whom he married in 1754, had died May 5, 1789, and within six months he married Mercy Phillips. Such celerity was considered unseemly in a prospective bishop and occasioned much criticism. But on May 24, 1796, he was again elected, and on May 7, 1797, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, he was consecrated the first Bishop of Massachusetts. The fact that he was now a bishop did not alter his relation to the parish at Newburyport. He continued in charge of that as before. The Episcopal Church in Rhode Island had been under the supervision of Bishop Seabury of Connecticut, but he had died in 1796, and it now placed itself under the charge of Bishop Bass, as did also the Church in New Hampshire.
The years covered by the episcopate of Bass were only six, but they were tense years both in church and state. He steered his course through them with honor, aiding by his kindliness and forbearance to put a rein upon bitter party spirit, and to make friends for his church. Not a man of scholarly attainment, he left nothing in print, save one or two sermons in pamphlet form.
He transferred his allegiance from the Congregationalism of his fathers to Episcopacy.
He married Sarah Beck in 1754. She died on May 5, 1789.