Henry Onderdonk

Onderdonk was born in New York City. He studied at Columbia University, receiving his degree in 1805, and then traveled to Britain for further education, receiving his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh. On returning to the United States, Onderdonk practiced medicine in New York before being ordained to the deaconate and priesthood by Bishop John Henry Hobart. In 1816, he went to western New York as a missionary and then returned east to become rector of St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn, remaining there for seven years. ==Bishop of Pennsylvania==

Onderdonk was elected assistant bishop of Pennsylvania in 1827, serving initially as assistant to Bishop William White. He was the 21st bishop of the ECUSA, and was consecrated by bishops William White, Alexander Viets Griswold, and James Kemp. However, bishop Kemp died of injuries received in a stage coach accident while returning from the consecration, so Onderdonk substituted in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland until a successor was elected. In 1830, Onderdonk published Episcopacy Tested In Scripture, first published in the Protestant Episcopalian and then as tract by the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, a defense of episcopacy based "on an appeal to the bible alone." On Bishop White's death in 1836, Onderdonk succeeded him as bishop. In 1844, Onderdonk was suspended from the exercise of his Episcopal office after rumors of alcoholism. The suspension was lifted in 1856, two years before his death. He is buried in the churchyard of Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia. ==Notes==