Richard Mansfield was the son of Jonathan and Sarah (Alling) Mansfield, and great-grandson of Richard Mansfield who emigrated from Exeter in Devonshire, England, to New Haven in New England in 1639, where the younger Richard was born on October 1, 1723.
Education
He prepared for college at the Hopkins Grammar School in that town, entered Yale at the age of fourteen, and graduated with the class of 1741, receiving the Berkeley premium for his high standing in classics. He continued his studies at Yale for a year after his graduation and then served as rector of the Hopkins Grammar School for a period of five years.
Career
An Anglican church had already been established at Derby, Connecticut, and in the absence of a clergyman, Mansfield read the services there. On Mar. 17, 1746/7, Johnson, in behalf of the Episcopal clergy of Connecticut, wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, asking that Mansfield be permitted to go to England for holy orders and for his appointment as missionary to Derby. Permission was granted and Thomas Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury, ordained him a deacon August 3, 1748, and a priest August 7, 1748. Appointed missionary to Derby, West Haven, Waterbury, and Northbury, he returned to America, arriving at New York October 23, 1748, and took up his residence at Derby. Here he served as rector of St. James Church for seventy-two years. In 1755 the field of his labors was limited to Derby and Oxford. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he preached subjection to the King, and under his influence 110 of the 130 families in his charge remained loyal to the Crown. He wrote to Governor Tryon in 1775 that several thousand men from the three western counties of Connecticut would join the King's troops sent to protect the Loyalists. When the contents of this letter became known he was forced to flee to Hempstead, Long Island, but soon returned to Derby. After the conclusion of peace, Mansfield and nine other Episcopal clergymen of Connecticut met at Woodbury to deliberate upon ecclesiastical affairs and organize for the future. He was chosen coadjutor to Bishop Seabury in a convention at Wallingford February 27, 1787, but declined the office. In the fall of 1792 he served on a committee to revise the articles of religion in the Book of Common Prayer. About 1800 his voice failed and he ceased to preach but continued to hold the office of rector. He presided over a convention of clergy which met at New Haven June 2, 1819, to choose the third bishop of Connecticut. He died at Derby at the age of ninety-six.
Achievements
Religion
His father was a deacon of the Congregational Church and the son was brought up in the Congregational faith, but under the influence of Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford he accepted Anglicanism.
Connections
On October 10, 1751, he married Anna, the daughter of Joseph Hull of Derby, and by her had thirteen children, nine of whom lived to maturity.