Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer

Background

Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer was born on February 11, 1812, in Swedesboro, New Jersey, the son of the Rev. Simon Wilmer, V and his first wife, Rebecca Frisby.

Education

Wilmer was graduated from the Theological Seminary in Virginia, at Alexandria, in 1834.

Career

In July of that year he was ordered deacon. From October 1834 to May 1837 he was in charge of St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia; in 1837 - 1838 he acted as chaplain at the University of Virginia.

In May 1838 he was ordained priest. The following March he was appointed a chaplain in the United States Navy. He resigned his commission in July 1844. For a time, in 1842 - 1843, he had been in charge of Hungar's Parish in Northampton County, Virginia.

After his resignation from the navy, he had charge of St. James-Northam Parish in Goochland County until early in 1849, when he became rector of St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia. He served there until shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, when, owing to his Southern sympathies, he retired to his summer home, "Plain Dealing, " in Albemarle County, Virginia. The only service he performed for the Confederacy, however, was a journey to England in 1863 to purchase Bibles for the soldiers; on the return voyage he was captured and confined for a short period in the Old Capitol Prison at Washington.

He was consecrated bishop of Louisiana in November 1866, and devoted himself with great energy to the restoration of the Church, which had been left by the war in a sadly disorganized condition. In religious circles he was identified with the high-church party and was noted as an eloquent pulpit orator. In the bitter presidential controversy of 1876, when Louisiana was brought to the verge of revolt, he made a trip to the North despite the protests against his interference in secular affairs in order to lay the situation before President Grant and President-elect Hayes, with the result recorded in history. He died suddenly on December 2, 1878, as he had always desired, in New Orleans.

Achievements

• The second Bishop of Louisiana in Christ Church in New Orleans, Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer was one of the most picturesque as well as influential figures of his church in his time.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A defense of Louisiana ..

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer had amusing absent-mindedness, keen sense of humor, wide information, tenderness and deep resentment of injustice.

Connections

On March 29, 1842, Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer married Helen Skipwith. Four sons and two daughters were born to them.

Father:

Simon Wilmer, V

In 1806, Simon Wilmer, V married Rebecca Frisby, by whom he had a son. After the death of his first wife, in 1837 he married Mary Eleanor McDaniel. The couple had two daughters.

Mother:

Rebecca Wilmer (Frisby)

half-sister:

Elizabeth Fuller (Wilmer)

half-sister:

Mary Rebecca Frisby Peale (Wilmer)

Daughter :

Rebecca Wilmer

Wife:

Helen Wilmer (Skipwith)

Son:

William Nivison Wilmer

Son:

Joseph Wilmer

Son:

John Ravenscroft Wilmer

Son :

Skipwith Wilmer